What the hell is Alchemy?
by Grey Distortion
Summary: Alice is forced into FMA world. For a normal fan it would be great but Alice knows nothing about FMA. Developed story from my oneshot. Be prepared for more crying, biting your finger nails and ... romance, okay an attempt at writing romance. EdxOC
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, well I finally decided to develop my oneshot into a story. For all those who haven't read it, it's fine, and for those who have and are wondering if the story ends like that…well, I'm not sure. Anything could happen. I'll probably decide halfway through on impulse or something.**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything but my own characters.**

"You're going to die," said the doctor.

It's not every day that someone tells you that. Then again, not everyone has a health issue. I guess in some ways it's funny, how just a few weeks ago I was enjoying my time with my friends, going to parties, watching films and then all of a sudden I start to get headaches. Really bad headaches. I honestly thought it was just one of those random ones that would come and pass but it never did. The pain continued for days until my mother took me to the doctors, which they booked a brain scan. Turns out I have a brain tumour that's been growing in the back of my head, in the part of the brain where memories are kept. I suppose that explains why I can't remember anything past the age of 12, I mean there are a few things I remember, but I don't remember my childhood. I don't even remember the date of my own father's birthday.

I slowly turn my head to the left, watching my mothers face freeze in shock, slowly crumbling and tears rolling down her face. And what do I feel? Nothing. Well, besides the pain in my head but other than that nothing. A pool of emptiness would be a better explanation; I guess I'm in shock. I hope I stay in shock for a long time. The doctor locked his eyes on mine, whilst his lips pulled an apologetic smile.

"Unfortunately the tumour has grown to the extent where it is too deep, and even if you had the surgery to remove it, the chances of you surviving are very slim. Of course you can still have the surgery if you wish so do so." I glanced back at my mother, her hazel eyes were bloodshot and her complexion was pale from shock. I quickly look away, knowing full well that if I look at her any longer I would probably breakdown. I've never been much of an open person, whenever I'm angry or sad at someone I would just keep it to myself. I'll probably breakdown later, when I'm alone and in my room.

_So I really am going to die_ I thought. My brain blanked out everything else, what people were saying and where I was. I clenched my hands and lowered my head, so that my fringe would be hiding my facial expressions.

At first I was angry. _How dare they not have noticed this sooner? Doctors go and have years of training, and they didn't even notice this? Are they beyond stupid or something?_

Then came denial. _Of course this isn't happening. This is all just a dream, a really bad dream. Or maybe I'm already in a coma and I'm dreaming. Or this is just one of those prank shows, and if it is, they better be prepared for me to sue their ass._

After, I was in fear_. I'm too young to die, I'm 16 and I haven't even lived my life. How is my mother going to survive without me? I'm her emotional support, without me, she would go crazy. What the hell do I do? I could have the surgery; I still have a chance of surviving._

I didn't want to think. I firmly closed my eyes, putting my hands to my ears in hopes that it would some how block out my thoughts, but it didn't work.

"I want to go home," I mumbled, loud enough for the doctor and my mother to hear. When I reopened my eyes, my mother nodded at me and I followed her out of the room. I don't remember how, but before I knew it, I was at home sitting on my bed.

_Finally, alone and in solitude_ I thought. The blue walls, made the mood even worse and I could hear the patter of rain. I listened, in case my mother was near the door, but heard nothing so I let everything out. I rested my head against the wall, whilst the tears trickled down my face. My heart felt as if it was being ripped to pieces, and the words '_why me?'_ chanted on and on. I felt as if an enormous black hole was eating me, as the images of my loved one flashed through my mind. I was tired of crying. I was tired of knowing that no matter how hard I would try to fight this, I would die. I was tired of the pain that grew more in my head. I was tried of life.

The sound of chirping birds had woken me up. I slowly opened my eyes not wanting to get up, but knowing that it would be best. _So I cried myself to sleep, that's a first,_ I thought. I grabbed a pair of black jeans and a blue hoodie, before going to the shower. When I had finished I brushed my black hair, trying to look presentable but failing due to my eyes still being puffy from crying. The pain was still gnawing in the back of my head. When I had reached downstairs, I saw my mother standing in front of the door waiting for me. Her dark hair was wrapped in a bun, and her eyes were swollen from the tears. She gave me a reassuring smile, before wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into a hug. My body froze, wanting to end the hug as soon as possible. I didn't want to be pitied; I just wanted to be left alone.

"Your sister is coming back this afternoon. She's going to take us out for lunch." I sighed. Jade was 3 years older than me, and was studying Law in university. I only saw her about 3 times a week for about an hour, not that I minded: I was use to it, I adapt to things easily. People would be confused of who's who, since us both looked similar but I was taller than her. My mother arms were now by her sides, her eyes staring at my face. I tried to give an as natural smile as I could.

"Sure, sounds fun," I really wanted to ask her how long I had left, but I didn't want to make things any worse, "I'm just going to the library first, and I'll be back in an hour."

She frowned, "Your sister will be here soon."

"I know, I just wanted to get something to read. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can."

She sighed, "Fine, but be careful." I rolled my eyes.

"I will." I gave her a kiss on the cheek, before running out of the house. The Library was only a 20 minute walk, and I would go their to get away from the stress of everything, after all, what better way to make yourself feel better and lose yourself than reading a book?

I walked down the pavement watching the familiar buildings go past me. The sun was out, and there were only a few clouds. The fragrance from a rose bush was wafted through the air by the summer breeze and the birds were chirping louder than usual. I eventually made it to the library. The building loomed over the streets; anyone who walked on the pavement would be covered by its shadow. When I reached the inside of the building, a waft of the smell of old books hit me: the smell was nogalistic. As I reached the front desk the receptionist smiled at me. She was about the age of thirty, and her blonde hair was in a ponytail. Her green eyes sparkled as I walked closer to her, she must have some juicy gossip to tell me.

"Lucy, I'm guessing you have something interesting to tell," I said. I had been here and talked to her a lot of times enough to be on a first name basis.

"You bet. Guess what? My brother is getting married!" she chattered for a while, but I really didn't want to hear her. I wasn't in the mood. _What am I doing?_ I thought _I can't keep on getting down about this. I should enjoy life to the fullest before I die._ But I couldn't move on easily, the more I thought about what would happen, the worse the feeling of someone slowly digging a knife in my gut.

"Alice, hey Alice are you okay? You look like your about to cry?" My eyes widened, _damn I_ _forgot I'm like an open book to people who know me._ I sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck.

"..No, no I'm fine," she raised an eyebrow, "really, I'm fine. Has my book come yet?"

"No, not yet." I sighed and started to walk away.

"Wait, Alice come here a second." I turned around surprised to see her holding out a plastic bag with something in it.

"Open it." I reached my hand in the bag and pulled out a purple notebook. The front cover had nothing on it and it was filled with lined pages, there was even a small black pen sitting on the binder. I opened my mouth, ready to ask why she had bought me this, but she cut me off before I could say anything.

"There was a sale, 2 for 1, and I only need one. Cheer up Alice; I don't like seeing you like this." Her eyes were full of concern.

"Thanks," I smiled. I had planned on telling her I was fine, but who was I kidding? I would always say I was fine no matter how I was feeling. Then again, I'd rather be in denial and ignorant than know the truth and face everything. I walked down the pavement, not watching my surroundings as I was deep in thought. Spontaneous gifts always cheered me up; then again if you gave me a cookie, I would be pretty happy.

BEEEEEEP!

The sound of car honking snapped me out of thought. I looked to my right and saw an old lady walking out to the road. _Is she crazy?_

"Wait! Stop!" I shouted. Luckily she seemed to have noticed the noise and had started to move backwards. The car drove past her, the driver shouting out from the window about her being stupid, I sighed.

"Crazy old lady," I muttered. I continued to walk down the road slowly, noticing that she was staring at me. She was mouthing something. I squinted my eyes, _is she saying wash ow? What the hell is wash ow?_ I turned my head forward and went SMACK straight into a lamp post. I fell backwards on to the concrete floor, the pain in my head spreading. Black spots appeared in my sight, and my body was shutting down, refusing to listen to me. _Oh, so she watch out, _I thought. The world grew black.

**What, you were expecting her to get hit by a car? Oh, and don't worry her mood will lighten up after a few chapters, I'm don't really enjoy writing about her acting all depressed but she's human. All humans grieve and get depressed.**

**Please Review **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you LeFay Strent and Lolo McGreening for the reviews. Reviews make the world go around (or in this case, makes me type faster).**

**Oh, and this story goes by the manga, NOT the anime since I've never seen it. (Whenever I try to, I get hit with the disease of laziness. It's a serious disease, 1 in 3 people suffer from it. True Story)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my lame characters. **

Silence.

_Okay, you know something's seriously wrong when you don't hear anything after losing consciousness, _I thought. I had to admit, I didn't expect to hear nothing. Don't hospitals normally have the sound of children crying and people talking? I slowly opened my eyelids, surprised to see nothing but white… literally, there was no walls, no windows, no nothing; it was just a vast emptiness of white that stretched on forever. My body was no longer in pain, even the pain in my head had gone.

I sat up and saw that I still had my bag (and notebook) with me. Warning bells went off in my head, _where am I? Am I dead? _I thought whilstlooking straight ahead.

In front of me was a large gray door that was at least twice the size of me in height. It had unusual drawings and symbols craved onto it; I had never seen anything like it before. The door gave off an almost dangerous aura; my gut was screaming at me to run away and never look back but at the same time, my curiosity urged me to touch the door and get a better look. I slowly reached my hand out to touch it, but I paused. _Wasn't there a saying about curiosity that my mother would tell me?_ I thought, _Oh, I remember. It was 'Curiosity killed the cat and Satisfaction brought it back, but at what cost?' _

After a while of inner turmoil, I decided it would be best to try and open the door, in hopes that someone would tell me where I was. Who knows, the door could have been the door to heaven or hell or wherever people go when they die. _What's the worst that could happen?_ I thought. I reached my hand until it was a few inches away from the door.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I froze and spun around, shocked to see something. I'm not sure what it was but it looked like an outline to a human's body, I wasn't sure if it was a girl or a boy by its voice, and it was sitting down. The things body looked like a child had drawn millions of dots around it.

"Okay its official. I have completely lost my sanity thanks to the stupid tumour in my head" I mumbled, rubbing my temples.

"I can assure you, you're still quite sane." My mouth opened, ready to ask a million questions that had been planted in my head, but it continued to talk. "I am what you humans refer to as the world, also known as the universe or knowledge, or all, or one, or God." My mind struggled to take in the information.

"er… okay. What do I call you then?"

It flashed me a bone chilling grin. "Truth."

"Okay 'Truth', if you're really God then who am I?" I don't care what this _thing_ was, there was no way I believed it was God.

Its grin grew bigger. "If you insist. Alice Goodall. 16 years old. You have one older sister called Jade Goodall. You live with your mother, Rachel Jones, and your parents have been divorced for a year. You-"

I quickly cut in, "Okay, okay I get it. So what happened to me and where am I?" There was no way I was letting this truth guy get to me.

"You died." I felt my body froze. _No, no this can't be real_, I thought, desperately trying to calm myself. My body was trembling and nothing was registering properly in my mind. I bit my lip hard, urgently trying to take my mind off things and to concentrate on the pain instead. I was close to tears when I thought to how my family and friends would react. I glanced up at truth, it appeared to be trying to say something to me, but I couldn't think straight.

"….. Foolish human girl, can your mind not comprehend what I said? I said you died when you hit your head against the concrete floor; the tumour in your head was pushed even deeper, making you 'brain dead'. Your body is still in contact, but you will never be able to return to it." I clenched my fists, and looked down, refusing to look at Truth.

"W-where am I then?" I asked, controlling my voice to sound calm.

"The Gate." What, the gate between life and death? "Fortunately for you, your passage fee has already been paid." My eyes widened.

"Passage fee? Passage fee for what? I didn't pay for anything."

"You paid with your memories."

"Why do I have to pay a passage fee? And what do you mean by my memories?"

It ignored my first question and gave me a degrading look. "You should have received you memories back now as you do not have any physical limitations from your old body. Since you have paid the toll for your new body by your memories, you will never get it back." What old body and new body? The more I thought, the more confused I was.

At first I thought, well it could have been worse, but when I thought deeper I realised something. I needed my memories. The memories of the great times I had with my friends and the holidays I had been to when I was young. The memories of a time when we were a happy family was precious to me, because I knew those times would never happen again. When my parents had gotten divorce, I had some what expected it and when my father had 'conveniently' gotten remarried soon after, I wasn't surprised. Although, when he decided to move half way around the world, I was shocked. I didn't mind at first, seeing as how my mother would never had the chance of bumping into him and it would be easier for her to handle, but I missed him. I would vent out my feelings through going to the library and reading books, my sister vented by going out all the time partying and my mother would vent by telling me how she felt. I remember my mother asking me once how I coped; I told her I didn't remember.

We stopped contact after he left, deciding it would for the best if he didn't talk to us. Although he tried to contact us once, it ended up with tears and shouting. Even now, I don't remember a lot of the times I had spent with my father, and now I never would. I would never even get the chance to make more memories with anyone that I cared for.

I stood there in silence and deep in thought, not acknowledging my surroundings, until I felt something cold touch my right arm. _What the hell? _A black hand has latched itself on my arm and was yanking me backwards. I turned around and nearly screamed. Hundreds of black arms were flying through the gate, clamping on parts of my body. It grabbed my legs and pulled hard, causing me to fall on the floor. My chin hit the floor and the taste of blood filled my mouth, from my teeth biting my tongue. I winced in pain and reached my hand out.

"HELP ME!" Truth did nothing but watch my pathetic attempts to break free. A black hand grabbed my mouth, stopping me from shouting. _Why isn't it helping me? I have to do something_ I thought, butnothing I was doing was working. The harder I kicked my legs, the firmer the grip became. I clenched my eyes, ready for the impact I would get as the hands threw me through he door.

**Hmmm, kinda short. And still depressing…. When will the depressing parts end? **

**Please review **


	3. Chapter 3

**DoctorWhotaliaandtheOlympians and Daninuyasha, Thanks for the reviews.**

**By the way, the town is made up. I thought that if she was in a town that already existed, it would be boring and annoying to write (I wouldn't be able to write it like it shows in the manga). Have fun reading.**

**Disclaimer: No I do not own FMA, only my OC. Am I going to have to do this for every chapter?**

**Random guy: Yes**

**Me:… damn**

Poke, poke, poke.

"Excuse me Miss, but if you sleep here any longer you might catch a cold." I groaned, and mumbled something along the lines of leaving me alone or I'd kick his ass.

"Al, just leave her alone. It's her fault for being stupid enough to sleep outside in a field," barked a second voice, why can't they leave alone to sleep?

"Brother!"

"What? It's true. Now come on, we have a train to catch."

My body was feeling heavy, and I really didn't want to get up, until all the memories of what had previously happened to me flooded into my mind. My eyelids snapped open and I shot up, before falling back on the ground from having a head rush. My stomach grumbled loudly, it must have been a while since I last ate something. I slowly lifted my head up to view the surroundings, the voices were right: I was in a field.

The sun was out, shining brightly and the endless sky was light blue. There was a slight breeze in the air, carrying the scent of flower petals and freshly cut grass. The field was spread around me, reminding me of the times I'd spent with my Granddad, before we moved to the city. He lived in the countryside and worked as a farmer, so we rarely saw him. Although I don't remember much about him, my mother would always tell me stories of her days living in a farm, then she would complain about how much easier I have it and that I should stop being lazy. Near the field was a small town, with train tracks running through it, but it reminded me of 19th century buildings. Where was I?

"See, she's awake now lets go."

A guy in a giant grey armour suit was kneeling next to me, and he had a white loin cloth on. His left shoulder had a red sign on of a cross and a snake, and the light bounced off the spike that was sticking out of the helmets forehead, momentarily blinding me. A few steps behind him were a boy who was standing up. Light rippled through his golden hair that was tied in a braid and his golden eyes were narrowed, showing how annoyed he was. He wore a red long sleeved, hooded coat that danced with the wind and underneath was a black top and trousers. I was tempted to make a sarcastic comment about their clothes, but decided against it. It would be best if I got friendly with these guys, and ask them where I was. The armour suit stood up and started to follow the boy.

"Wait!" They both turned around to look at me. I pushed myself up and walked towards them. "Thanks for waking me up. My name is Alice Goodall."

"Nice to meet you, my name is Alphonse Elric and this is my older brother Edward." So the short guy was older, I think my sister can relate to him. What weird names though, I've never heard anyone with them. Although the Edward guy reminds me of Edward Cullen, I mean they both have same first names and same coloured eyes. I shivered, that would be worrying thought: to meet Edward Cullen.

"Is something wrong?" asked Alphonse

"No, I was just thinking that's all. Do you mind if I walked with you to town?" I would have to worry about money, shelter and my problems later, for now I need to get as much information as I could. Alphonse looked at his brother, as if for permission, and Edward looked suspicious towards me.

"It's just that I'm a traveller and I don't really now where I am. I lost the map whilst walking here."

"I don't know…" Alphonse trailed off.

"Please?" I gave them both the best puppy dog eyes I could make, I'd done this millions of times with my dad and it worked like a charm. Tears started to form on the edge of my eyes; I could see their wall breaking down.

"Fine, but don't cause any trouble." My face lit up with a smile.

"Thanks! I appreciate it." I ran to Alphonse, catching up to his pace and walking beside him, "So Alphonse, what's the town called?"

"There's no need to be so formal, call me Al. We're heading to the town called Penro." ….Penro? I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto.

"What are you doing out here in the fields then?" I asked, I mean if they're catching a train then what are they doing here?

"We just went for a walk; we were born in the countryside and the fresh air is nice." After a while, I learnt that they were both from a place called Resembool, which was a few train stops away from here and that they travelled quite a lot. Al was easy to talk to; I was surprised how comfortable I felt around him despite him wearing a big armour suit. He was pleasant and very kind, although Edward didn't contribute much to the conversation, he didn't seem to care about me. Then again, I am a stranger so I'm not surprised. I really wanted to know why Al was in a suit of armour; I mean, is it a custom here or something? After 20 minutes of walking and talking, we were approaching the town. I assumed that I was in a time period of the 19th century, due to the lack of cars in the streets and the steam train, but other than that, I still had no idea where I was. I was either in a completely different dimension/world or in a different time period.

"How old are you Alice?"

"I'm 16."

"Really? You're so tall though, I thought you were older."

"I might be tall but I have a bit of a baby face. If I was normal height then I would look my age. How old are you?"

"I'm 15."

"And you call me tall even though you're taller than me?" I laughed and turned my head towards Edward, "How old are you Edward?"

He stopped and then turned around, studying my face carefully as if expecting me to do or say something. "I'm 16."

"So you're the same age as me then," I smiled at him. Edward reminded me of a friend I had in school. He was about the same height as Edward and I would tease him about his height all the time, as a joke. He didn't mind though, and I admired him for it. I guess people who are short learn to grow backbones; since they get teased for being short so often.

Edward looked confused, but then he brushed it off and continued to walk forwards. As we walked into town, I couldn't help but be amazed. It looked like I had jumped into an old TV programme, everything looked so different. I did my best to control my facial expression, so that I wouldn't look like a weirdo or a suspicious person, but I couldn't help but smile a bit. The roads weren't made with tarmac, but just dried mud and the buildings were those types from the countryside. People were roaming around the streets, either talking to each other or selling things.

"Well it was nice talking to you Alice, but we have to go to catch a train," Already? Looks like I'll have to find out things on my own.

"That's a shame; we'll have to meet up next time. Oh, I almost forgot. You never told me where you both were going to."

"To East city," replied Edward. I waved and watched them both go of for their train. When they both had left my sight, I dropped my arm down and sighed. What am I going to do? I have no money, nobody I know, and I don't have a clue where I am. What about my family? Truth said I died, so there's no going back. I clenched my hands and breathed slowly in and out, trying to calm myself. _Don't breakdown_, I thought, _think woman, be rational. Find shelter first, and then cry later._

This is going to be a long day.

**Sorry it's short; I have LOADS of work to do.**

**Please review **


	4. Chapter 4

**LeFay Strent and XxBishxX, thanks for the reviews and thanks to everyone who has favourited/put my story on Alert. I feel the love guys.**

**To clear things up about her memory and stuff, she had previously lost MOST of her childhood memories (she still remembered a few things), and she was suppose to get them back, since she was no longer in her old body (since there was no longer something that was physically handicapping her and stopping her memories). Instead of getting them back when she was in her new body, Truth decided to take those memories as payment. She is now left with a few memories, but not a lot. I hope this makes sense, and if it doesn't I apologise. I think differently from other people (haha).**

**Disclaimer: FMA isn't mine. And never will be. Actually, there might be a parallel dimension and in that dimension, I might own FMA. But not here. :'(**

Have you ever had a dream where you end up naked in the middle of a street and everyone starts to point at you? Well, I haven't but I was starting to get that feeling of what it feels like. I forgot that my clothes were different (apparently blue hoodies and black jeans isn't the fashion trend these days), and since Al and Edward didn't really care about what I was wearing, I forgot. My eyes were glued to the skirts of the women that walked passed me. I internally groaned, _I don't want to wear skirts, _I thought, _I rather scoop my eyes out with a spork_. If I get thrown in another time period, I swear, I will make it my mission in life to kill the person who came with the idea of wearing skirts. And corsets.

At the moment, I was sitting down on a sturdy, old wooden bench, enjoying the breathtaking scenery of the countryside. What Al said was right, the fresh air is nice. I put my hands in my front pocket of the hoodie, and heard a rustling noise. My eyes widened, as my hand pulled out a plastic bag, _that's right, the notebook! How did it get in here?_ The purple notebook shimmered in the sunlight, and I pulled the thin, black pen out of the binder and decided to write in it, after all, it's not like I have anywhere to go.

_Day 1_

_I've never been good about talking about my feelings. The only reason I'm writing in this book is because I want to keep my sanity, so I should probably write about what happened to me. _

_I died from a brain tumour and met this thing called Truth. He mentioned something about my 'old body' and my 'new body'; I'm probably in my 'new body', or whatever, I don't really understand what happened. I had to pay my memories as a passage fee and then I got pulled through this gate/door by these weird hands. Then I found myself here. _

_After waking up in a field, I met 2 people, Al and Edward (it's weird that I call Alphonse, Al but I don't call Edward anything. I guess the only thing I can do is get to know him better when I see him next time). And now I'm in a town called Penro, appearing to look like a homeless freak or a vagrant. Either one works._

_I should be thankful for receiving a second chance in life, but now I have no idea what to do._

I shivered, and noticed that the sun was starting to go down. Casted by the sun, an orange haze was spread throughout the sky, as if it was lit by fire. Colours, such as hot pink, purple and red were blended together, and the sun sunk lower down in a lazy manner. Light glistened from the window sill of the shops, and the streets grew quiet, with the occasional noise of crickets. I slouched down further in the bench, lifting my head up and watching the crows fly by. My stomach grumbled for the 4th time today.

All of a sudden, I heard the sound of footsteps that were coming closer and closer, so I turned my head to the side. A young man, around his early twenties, was shuffling down the street whilst carrying a large wooden box and a few books on top. He had light brown hair and smouldering blue eyes, which were staring straight ahead. We wore black trousers, a white shirt (that wasn't tucked in, and was loosely hanging out) and a black waistcoat that fitted him snugly. Then a book from the top of the box fell and hit his foot. His face turned into a scowl and he started to mumble something under his breath. As I started to put my notebook away, his head snapped to my direction after hearing the noise of the rustling plastic bag. His eyes studied me for a while, _err…I feel a bit violated, _I thought.

"You! Girl on the bench." He growled, what the hell did I do to piss him off?

"Do you mean me?" I asked my eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Who else is on the bench?" he snapped, "Get over here and help me, can't you see my hands are full?" I hesitantly got up, unsure of what to do. What if this guy was a rapist?

"Hurry up, I don't have all day." I quickly ran and picked up the book from the floor. When I was stood next to him, I noticed that he was quite good looking. And that he reeked of alcohol. Oh, joy. His eyebrows furrowed and he frowned, so I grabbed the other books that were on top of the wooden box. He then nodded his head forward, as a sign for me to follow, and he started to walk. I followed him, whilst looking at the books that I was holding….it's a good thing I can multitask. In total, I was holding 3 books; they were all different sizes and had different colours on the cover. The biggest one was at the bottom, with a deep green cover. The second one was the smallest, with a royal purple cover and the book on the top had a navy blue cover. The books were old and the spines were wearing away. The top book was titled 'THE MECHANISM OF CLOCKS'. This is weird, how can I actually read what this says? And now that I think about it, how am I able to talk and read in this weird language? I groaned, Damn Truth, what the hell did it do to me?

"We're nearly there" informed the man. His voice instantly brought me back into reality; I really need to be more aware of my surroundings. The sky was no longer a mixture of colours, but instead was a dark blue. The lamps, which were on both sides of the road, were lit emitting a small amount of light. Curtains were drawn from all houses and there was silence, with the rare interruption of the sound of owls hooting.

The man abruptly stopped, causing me to nearly collide into him. He put his hand in his pocket, grabbed a key and walked to a door. I glanced up and realised we were outside a rather small shop, with the sign 'Fimmen's clocks' hanging above. Wait, this guy is a shop owner that owns clocks? Really? I thought old men did this kind of thing. The door squeaked loudly and open, the man signalled me again to follow him. I paused for a moment, my doubt and paranoia was nagging at me to stop and think.

"Come on, do you plan to freeze to death out there?"

I dragged myself through the door, ignoring the voices of doubt. I walked through the front room, where it was filled with hundreds of clocks and a desk at the back, and then I went into another room. The room was quite old; it had spider webs on the corner of the walls and a big, unlit, stone fireplace sat underneath it. A picture hung above the fireplace, and next to it was a door. The picture was of random lines, and it looked like gibberish to me. There was a hazel sofa in front of the fire place, with a white rocking chair place next to it and in the middle of the room was a small table, where the man had put the box on. On the other side of the wall, a tall bookcase stood there, and next to it was the door leading to the next room. The house was cold, but the man had knelt down next to the fire place and had started to light the fire, whilst I stood there in an awkward silence, watching him.

"Put the books on the table," he commanded. I did as he told, then returned to the place where I was standing before.

"You can sit down, you know." I gently sat on the sofa, my hands gripping on to my knees. The man turned around and stood up, walking towards me. He ran his fingers through his short hair and looked as if he was contemplating what to say to me.

"What's your name?" he asked, his gazed locked onto mine. Should I tell him my real name? It's not like I have anything to lose.

"Alice Goodall. What's yours?"

"Robert Fimmen. Thanks for helping me," he looked more sober than he did before and less angry, "did you run away from home or something?"

"Err… what?"

"Most girls your age would have already been home at this time. And by looking at your clothes, I can tell you're from a different country." This guy was smart and observant; I would have to be careful about what I say around him. Good thing he's drunk.

"Kind of. I'm looking for a place to work and an inn near by. Mind telling me any that's close by?"

He frowned, "Not when it's this late." Robert paused. "I'll let you stay for the night as reward for helping me." How drunk was this guy? "Wait here."

Robert stumbled out of the room, _he's definitely wasted_ I thought. After a while, he returned holding a piece of bread and a bottle of what appeared to look like wine. He chucked me the bread and sat down on the rocking chair, drinking the wine. How did he know I was hungry?

"I heard your stomach grumble a few times on the way here." Robert rocked backward and forwards, staring at the picture. After inspecting the bread and deciding it was safe to eat, I pulled pieces off and ate it slowly.

"Girl, I'll give you a job." Whoa, what? "I'll let you stay in this house as payment for working."

"I told you, my name is Alice. And what kind of job is it?" I watched him carefully; trying to read is facial expressions. He had a good poker face.

"Look after the shop."

"That's all?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" He stopped rocking and started to rub his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

"My Grandfather left my father the shop when he died. My father was always bad at fixing clocks, so he left the stupid shop to me since I'm the only person he knows that can fix clocks. He left the town before I could give the shop back to him, and nobody wants to buy this place, since its piece of junk," he snapped, his voice turning sour whenever he said the word 'father'.

This could work. All I have to do is look after the shop and I get to live here. I grinned; finally fate is smiling at me. The only problem is whether I can trust him.

"….So do I have to fix the clocks?"

He snorted, "If I can be bothered to teach you. So I guess that's a yes then."

I rolled my eyes "That depends. If I'm looking after the shop, where will you be?"

"Don't stick your nose in my business girl."

"What if I need you?"

"You won't."

"But what if somet-"

"Listen girl," Robert turned his head around, and his icy blue eyes bore into mine, "I don't ask you where you come from, and you don't ask me where I go to. It's a perfect relationship, if you ask me." His voice sent shiver down my spice, and despite him saying it in a calm voice, I could hear a threat underlying it.

"Where's my room?" I asked, struggling to compose my voice. He turned his head, breaking eye contact, and started to stare at the picture on the wall again.

"Top floor, first right."

"Thanks for the meal." I muttered, running out of the room. Robert was right. If he didn't want me finding out about what he does, then I should respect it, I should be glad that he isn't snooping around at my past. It was dark, but I managed to get up the stairs without tripping over. I opened the door and jumped straight on the bed. My body was exhausted, _I'll look around later_ I thought.

**I was planning on making Robert a manwhore, but I thought this was more interesting. **

**Please Review**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ed'.Kitten, Hanashi o suru and LeFay Strent, Thanks for the review and thanks for anyone else who favourited/alerted it. It makes my day **

**Disclaimer: No I don't own FMA, but if I did, I would sell it on Ebay….I wonder how much money I would get?**

**Random guy: cough-Kakuzu-cough**

**Me: …Shut up…**

"Wake up girl."

I yawned, "…..no"

"I'll drag you out," he threatened.

"Alice is unable to respond at the moment. Please leave a message after the beep, BEEP."

There was a silence, and I heard the sound of pacing footsteps, walking away. It had been like this for about a week, and he still refused to call me by my name. In the morning Robert would come and wake me up, using threats, blackmail, force or bribery. After that, I would go downstairs and sit in the shop for about 9 hours doing nothing. Every now and again, he gave me money to buy food but most of the time I just sat in the store and read. At night he would come home, his clothes would emit a foul smelling odour of alcohol, and then he would fix some clocks. He would teach me every once in a while when he could be bothered, which wasn't often, so I was forced to read books and learn for myself. Since I had 9 hours of free time I learned it pretty fast, I would still make mistakes and there was a lot of things I couldn't do, but I could fix a basic watch.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of footsteps again _I guess he's gonna drag me out again_ I thought naively, so I grabbed onto the bed rails, my eyes still closed.

SPLASH!

I shot up, my eyes fully open. My hair, clothes and bed was completely soaked, I glared at him, his blue eyes shining with amusement and his lip curled up, smirking away. The sadistic man folded his arms and stared at me, whilst I hugged myself for warmth. I felt a trickle of water run down my back and my hair was sticking to my face.

"Y-you s-s-stupid moron!" I stammered as his smirk grew bigger.

"If you stay in bed any longer, you'll catch a cold. I suggest you get up now, unless you plan on having a shower in bed?"

I growled and cursed under my breath. "W-well? Leave t-then," I hissed.

He rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. That was another thing I found out about him, he enjoyed teasing me or making me squirm. Apparently, I had 'funny facial expressions' and that since I was working for him, Robert knew that I couldn't do anything back to him. He wasn't that bad all the time though, just when his drunk or in the mornings when I'm acting stubborn but it's not my fault; the bed calls to me every time I get out.

I rushed into the shower, grabbing my red and black chequered dress. That's right, A DRESS. No matter how much I complained, I was forced to wear such a horrific thing. Robert would say that girls should wear a dress instead of trousers, and even though I told him that I would rather PRETEND to be a boy JUST so I could wear trousers, he refused. Your probably wondering why I hate dresses or skirts so much, well whilst I was going to school wearing skirts, guys would try and lift them up. Of course I wasn't the only one who received this cruel treatment, all the other girls had it just as bad. This is why I started wearing trousers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mentally scarred for life or I don't have an irrational fear towards guys since I can't hold a grudge for longer than a few hours, although now that I think about it, maybe it was because I would forget things after a while.

When I had finished, ran to the landing and jumped on the banister, sliding down. I skipped to the living room and scowled when I noticed that Robert was sitting on the coach, reading a newspaper.

"Your face will be stuck permanently like that if you keep on frowning," he stated, his eyes still focused on the newspaper. It was then I noticed that he was wearing casual clothes, or what was considered causal clothes in the 1900s.

That's right, I found out what time period I was in. I found out the second day here, after finding a newspaper in the shop, and then I screamed and ran around in circles for a while. After going through shock and crying, I got a grip on myself. There's no point moping around, I'm alive and that's all that matters. I'll go through life, ready for whatever it throws at me.

"I need you to deliver something for me out of town." …wait, what? I was saying that as a figure of speech, I'm not ready yet.

"I don't know," I looked away, rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly. I heard the sound of newspaper being folded, and knew that he was staring at me.

"It won't be that hard."

"Why can't you go?" I asked, still refusing to look at him.

"I need to fix the clocks."

"I can do that."

"You can fix basic clocks; you can't reconstruct an old clock." My hand gripped my arm as I looked down. I don't want to do this, at least not yet. I just started to get use to living here and I've gotten to know a few people from this town.

"So it that why your wearing casual?"

He sighed, "Unfortunately I have a job from a client that needs me to reconstruct an old clock from scratch, so it'll take me a while, especially since I have to wait for some parts to come. I need this delivery sent soon, and I don't have time to do it myself."

"Can't you ask someone else to deliver it?" The sound of footsteps caused me to glance up. Robert was stood a few steps away from me; he rested both his hands on my shoulders and locked his eyes with mine. His brown hair looked lighter today, possibly from the sun.

"I'm asking _you_ because I trust _you._ This is a special delivery, and if they don't get there, I would get in a lot of trouble." He squeezed my shoulders for emphasis every time he said 'you'. Despite him having a poker face on, his eyes were serious. "You do realise that if I get in trouble, they'll look into your past." My eyes widened, _he was right_ I thought, _but more importantly, how much does he know about me_?

"What do you know about my past?" I inquired, my eyes narrowing.

"I don't. But since you haven't told me anything, I'm guessing it's not good." I searched his eyes, seeing if he was lying but found nothing.

"What about your personal affairs?"

He released my shoulders, as his eyes hardened. "We're not talking about this." He sat back on the couch, and gazed at the picture on the wall. There's no point arguing, he won't tell me anything. I might as well go.

"Fine, I'll do it. Where to and who to?"

Robert continued to observe the picture. "East City Headquarters." East City, why does that sound do familiar?

"Headquarters of what?"

"The government." I felt my blood grow cold. Wouldn't it be stupid if I got involved? What if they found out and wanted to do tests on me? The thought brought chills to my spine.

"I…" I paused for a while, unsure of what to say,"I don't think that would be a good idea if I went."

"They won't question you. I already made a few calls ahead telling them that you're going in my place. It would be bad if I went personally anyway." I swear he's doing something illegal, and that's why he goes out all of the time.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

I started to walk away so that I could pack, before I heard his voice again.

"Alice." I stopped and turned around.

"What?"

"What do you see in the picture?" This is random. I walked up to the picture and examined it closely.

"…Numbers, I think." I didn't even realise it before, I thought it was just a bunch of squiggly lines.

"What numbers do you see?" I raised an eyebrow. This is kind of getting creepy now.

"15, 6, 9, 5, 22, 18 and 7. Why, what do you see?"

He remained silent for a while. "Interesting number choice. 11, 9, 14 and 4." He didn't say anything else after that.

I rushed up the stair and started packing. I threw a few tops, skirts, underwear and a 'borrowed' pair of black trousers into a small red bag that Robert had given me. I then grabbed my notebook and stuffed it in before having an epiphany. Al and Edward! Now I remember why it sounded so familiar, they told me they were going to East city. I wonder if I'll bump into them. The thought cheered me up dramatically, and when I had finished packing I ran downstairs.

Robert was no longer sitting down, but instead was lying on his back reading a book.

"I thought you were meant to be fixing something, not being lazy."

"I'm on my break."

"Sure you are," I muttered sarcastically.

"Your train arrives in 1 hour. I suggest you get something to eat, or you won't have chance to for another few hours." Right on cue, my stomach grumbled loudly, making me blush. He then tossed me a small purse. "It's money, it should last you a while. Call me if you do anything stupid and I'll see if I can drag you out of it."

"Robert, how old are you?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"You act like a wise old man sometimes, but then you act like an immature kid."

"Like you?"

"Oh, ha ha. I'm laughing so much that my sides hurt." I said, with sarcasm dripping from my words.

"I turned 20 a few months ago. Talking about numbers, it would be best if you remembered the ones you saw from the picture." Again with the picture.

"Why? Where did you get it from?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"It's not my fault when a certain 'someone' keeps making vague remarks."

"My grandmother gave it to me."

"And I should remember because…"

"It's important." He's the most cryptic guy ever. Trying to get information out of him is like trying to pull teeth out. He pointed at the table; on top of it was a small wooden box.

"Why does the government want clocks?"

"Not clocks, watches," he licked his finger and turned a page in his book.

"That doesn't help."

"It's for state alchemists."

"Huh?"

"People who utilize alchemy for either fighting or creating things. There known all over the world for being strong." I'm really confused.

"What the hells alchemy?" he dropped his book, and sat up.

"You don't know what alchemy is?"

"Isn't alchemy something that old guys do, and the try to turn metal into gold? I thought it didn't work." He stared at me with disbelief, as if I had asked him where food came from.

"Alice….. Did you hit your head or something?"

"No…."

He shook his head, "Ask someone else to explain it to you, you really are stupid."

I felt my face heat up again, "Shut up!" I stomped out of the room, carrying the small box.

**I'm sleepy; don't write stories at 1.30am. Oh, and don't worry, Robert will pop back in the storyline again.**

**Please review**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hanashi o suru and LeFay Strent**, **thanks for the reviews, and to those who favourited/ alerted. Wǒ hěn gǎnjī (Its mandarin, I thought I'd throw it in.)**

**Disclaimer: I tried buying ownership of FMA from the guy who lives down the street; he just gave me weird looks. I own my own characters….. And I guess I own the town Penro. **

That's it. I'm in a different dimension. There's no way I could be in the past, alchemy didn't work in the past, yet it works here.

After hours of sitting on the train, and clutching on to the package, I decided to kill the time with the book Robert had given me.

_Earlier that day…_

_I rushed through the living room, once again, to ask Robert something._

"_Eh? Your still here? If you don't go soon, you'll miss the train."_

_I rolled my eyes, "I know, I just wanted to ask you how long the train ride is."_

"_About 3 hours." Are you kidding me? 3 HOURS, with no music and no entertainment of any sorts?_

"_Ugh, I'll be bored stiff." I moaned. Robert stood up and walked to the bookshelf, trailing his fingers against the spines of the books. His hand stopped on a dark orange book, and he pulled it out. He turned around and strolled to me holding the book out._

"_Introduction to alchemy," I read aloud, "I thought you told me to ask someone else."_

_He smirked, "I was planning to, but I would feel sorry for inflicting pain on the poor person who tries to explain something so simple to a girl like you."_

_My eye twitched, "Are you insinuating something?" _

"_Don't you have a train to catch?"_

"_Yeah, yeah." I muttered, snatching the book out of his hand and tucking it under my arm._

"_Don't forget about what I told you."_

"_About what? The 'don't screw this up' part, or the 'remember the numbers' part?"_

"_Both." What a lazy ass._

So here I am, reading. The book is surprising easy to understand, as long as you fully understand the theory and how to draw the transmutation circles, it would work. It's kind of like chemistry at school, but with more drawing: it's a good thing that I'm smart, other wise I wouldn't have been to understand any of this. The only problem is practise; not matter how well you understand the theory, if you don't practise then it won't work. Unfortunately for me, I'm the laziest person out of everyone I know, so I wouldn't have the patience to even try or to bother practising.

I sighed and slouched down further in the seat, watching the flash of trees fly past the window. Luckily, I was the only person in this compartment, so I didn't have to have awkward conversations with anyone, or listen to the sound of babies crying. I made an attempt to lie down on the seat, in hopes to catch up on some missed sleep, thanks to Robert for waking me up early. Sadly, the seat was made of wood, and after a few minutes, I began to receive back pains. What made it worse was that even if I had gotten use to the hard seat; my legs would stick out, blocking the aisles so that nobody could go through. _This is one of the disadvantages for being tall, _I thought, rubbing my temples.

I then noticed that the train was slowing considerably down, and that I was able to make out what the outside scenery looked like. The sun wasn't as bright today, and the sky was mostly covered with clouds. The train was now pulling in to a station, and was progressively slowing down until it had reached a complete stop. The buildings around were made from wood, and there was a large black sign that was hanging on a building clear for everyone to see, saying "EAST CITY." Well, I guess this is my stop. I queued on the line to the door, as people slowly moved through, and when I had stepped off the train, the smell of coal and smoke hit me. I don't think I have ever been on a steam engine train before. Or at least not that I remember.

The sound of chattering filled my ears, distracting me for a second, before I remembered why I came here. People were ushering on and off the trains, some holding suitcase whilst others were holding hands with either there family or friends. I searched around, looking for a clock, and found one high up on a building saying that it was 4 o'clock; the delivery was suppose to arrive at 5pm, so I had enough time to explore this place.

* * *

After roaming around the streets of East City, I had made 3 mental notes.

1. East city was astoundingly big (hence the name 'city') compared to Penro, and was a lot more modern.

2. I got lost very easy.

3. I'm extremely bad at understanding people's directions, so unless someone physically showed me where to go, I wouldn't have a clue.

What made it even worse was that it had started to rain, and I didn't have an umbrella. The sky was a patchy gray, and it wept for a long time. Everyone had decided to take cover in a shop or under shelter. You would have thought I'd do this too, but after looking at a clock and seeing that I only had 15 minutes left, I really didn't have much choice but to run as fast as I could. _Take a left down the street and continue to follow the road until you see 'Martha's flower shop', then you take a sharp right, _I thought, remembering what the lady had told me a few streets ago. I groaned, I had been sprinting up and down the never-ending street for what seemed like hours and I had gotten no where.

SPLASH, SMACK.

I tripped on a piece of rubble, and had nearly smacked my head on the floor; it's a good thing I had put my arms out. I gently lifted my hand, to see if it was okay, and then my body registered the pain. The cuts on the palm of my hands and knees stung like crazy, like someone had thrown salt onto my wounds and my things were flung on the floor in different directions.

I yelped in pain. "MOTHERFU-"

"Are you okay Miss?" Looking up, I laid my eyes on a man in his early thirties or late twenties. He had black hair, and a lock of it stuck out, he also wore rectangular spectacles that framed his hazel eyes. He wore a blue military suit… wait, military suit… rubble… what the hell was going on? A worried expression grew on his face, and he held out his hand. I grabbed it and stood up, wincing a little at the pain from my new wounds.

"I should be fine; it was my fault for running in the first place."

I gawked as I had a proper view at my surroundings. Buildings had been demolished and the rubble covered the streets, no wonder I had fallen from it. There was a giant gaping hole in the middle of the ground; it was so deep that you couldn't see anything except pitch black. People in military clothes were dotted around; it looked like a bomb had gone off in the middle of the streets. The man had kindly picked up my belongings and held it out to me.

"Thanks," I took my things from him, "So what happened here."

His expression darkened slightly, "There was an attack." You see, this is exactly why I didn't want to go to the city. "It's not safe at the moment, you should go back." Trust me, I would if I could.

"Actually I'm supposed to be going to East City Headquarters to deliver a package, but I got lost on the way."

He smiled, "Ah, so that's what the package was for. You can come with us; we're on our way back now. My name is Maes Hughes." You gotta love friendly people; they make things a lot easier.

"My name is Alice Goodall; it's nice to meet you."

I followed him back to a group of people, who were crowding around something. I peeked through and saw two very familiar figures.

"Al!" I yelled and knelt down, whilst looking at the other person, "Edward! Are you ok?"

I froze after seeing the state they were both in. Al's right arm and leg looked like it had been ripped off, revealing a hollow inside. Hollow inside? Should I be surprised, or is that normal here? I've really had to ignore everything about common sense since coming here. Edward didn't look any better off; his right arm had also gone exposing a metal stump. Is he a robot, and is that normal here? I swear, having to question what is and isn't normal here is annoying. I studied him, and came to the conclusion that he wasn't a robot, and that he had a metal arm since his body and clothes were covered in clothes, and blood was dripping down. It was then, that I had noticed that all eyes were focused on me.

Edward looked worried and surprised, "We're fi-"

"Don't answer that, it was a stupid question." Once, again he gave me a questioning look, like he did when he mentioned how old he was.

"Alice, what are you doing here?" Al asked.

"Just work. I think it would be better if we caught up later, Edward needs to go to the hospital, right?" Everyone was giving me weird looks. Was they expecting to me surprised or something? Maybe Al being hollow and Edward having a metal arm isn't a normal thing.

I heard a cough and glanced up, noticing the man who was trying to get my attention. It was hard to guess his age, because of his baby face, and he also had black hair and was wearing a military suit. His dark piercing eyes observed me, appearing cautious.

"Hello, my name is Colonel Roy Mustang. I don't think we have been introduced." He held out his hand.

I stood up and shook his hand, "I'm Alice Goodall, an acquaintance of Al and Edward," he raised an eyebrow when I said Edward. Am I the only person who calls him by his full name? "Nice to meet you."

"This is L.T Riza Hawkeye," he pointed at a blonde woman in her late twenties, "second L.T Jean Havoc," a blonde man with a cigarette in his mouth nodded at me, "and state alchemist Alex Armstrong." The big topless man smiled, which was creeping me out a little. "I believe you have already met Major Maes Hughes." I nodded.

"She's here to deliver a package, I told her she could come with us," said Hughes.

Mustang looked annoyed, but didn't complain. Havoc had wrapped Al's arm around his neck and carried him to the car, whilst Hawkeye had given her coat to Edward. They were all talking about what had happened so I tuned their voices out, there was no point getting involved in something that could get me in trouble. I zoned out for a while, until Hughes had rested his hand on my shoulder.

"You'll be coming in my car." Honestly, I just wanted to hurry up and finish this delivery. I stayed behind him, until we had reached the car. He turned around and smiled, pulling out something from his pocket in his coat. His eyes shined, as a blush formed on his cheeks and he looked very excited.

He lifted his glasses, "So, would you like to look at my pictures of my adorable daughter?"

This was going to be an interesting car ride.

**That's right, I skipped the fight scene! Why? To be more original…**

**Please Review **


	7. Chapter 7

**Ed'.Kitten, Falling Raene, LeFay Strent and Hanashi o suru, thanks for the reviews and to anyone else who alerted/favourited.**

**Sorry if my standards of writing have slipped, I wasn't in a very good mood when I was writing this.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA and I never will**

"Isn't she adorable?" squealed Hughes for the hundredth time, and I'm not exaggerating.

"Yeah, I guess." This was getting annoying. Hughes had some how managed to drag the conversation about his 'cute' daughter for quite a while now. At first I thought it was nice, I mean he clearly loves his family and he's overly protective like most fathers. After a while though, I was getting bored. I didn't want to say anything, since that would be rude, but I just wanted the conversation to be about something else. I studied the palm of my hands and noticed that the cuts were already starting to scab over. It's a good thing the wounds aren't deep, I have a low pain thresh hold and even the tiniest cut would get me complaining (to my friends, not strangers. I wasn't going to complain in front of Hughes like a baby).

"Ah, look we're nearly there," I glanced up, my eyes widening.

The car was pulling into a large building; it was bigger than any building I had ever seen. The building loomed over everything, and stood out like a sore thumb compared to the other buildings. The walls were white, and many people were walking in and out. The car parked near the side of the walls with the other cars and as I got out, I saw Al and Edward. Mustang was ushering them to quickly go into the building, he was soon followed by the group of people that was with him in the streets. I turned around to Hughes, who had just got out of the car.

"Thank you for the ride."

He smiled, "No problem. If you get lost just ask someone."

I nodded and started to walk on the path, observing the building. When I had gotten in the building, I met the receptionist and asked where the package was supposed to be delivered. She gave me directions, and after 20 minutes of walking around, getting lost and asking people for help, I finally found the person in charge of delivery. He had blonde hair, and a fringe that covered his forehead. His blue eyes widened in surprise, as he saw me holding the package.

"So he sent you then? Your name is Alice, right?" He? I guess it's not a good idea to mention his name here. The man seemed to know Robert personally, I could tell by the tone of his voice.

"Yes, I'm sorry that the delivery is late."

"It's fine, as long as it got here safely." As I handed him the package, a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I could sleep comfortably tonight.

"I have to admit, I was surprised when he said that someone would be coming. He normally just sends it through the mail," What? Are you kidding me? I just went through all the trouble to get here, when he could have just mailed it? He had noticed that I was annoyed. "Don't worry, that guy does everything for a reason."

"You talk as if you've known him for a long time."

"I have, we're childhood friends. He might be harsh at times, but his a nice person inside."

"Yeah, very, very deep inside," I muttered. I'm surprised though, someone as kind as him is friends with Robert. What's weird is I've never heard him being mentioned before; then again Robert doesn't mention anything. Another military officer down the hall shouted something.

"Well I have to get going now. My name is Major Karl Weber; if you have any problems just come and find me." He waved and paced down the corridor, well that was random. I should go check up on Al and Edward to see if there okay.

* * *

WHY? Would it kill them to make a map? At this very moment I was hitting my head against the wall, repeatedly. I had been told 5 times, no joke, where to go and I still couldn't find where the room was.

"Erm... Excuse me, but can I help you?" My head snapped up, great now I look like an idiot.

"I'm looking for the Elric brothers."

He looked at me strangely, "They're through that door next to you." I was so tempted to do a facepalm, but I was already getting strange looks.

"Thanks," I mumbled. I walked to the wide white door and gently knocked, waiting for someone to answer.

"Come in."

I opened the door, and quickly regretted it. Everyone who was from the street was there, so around 10 people, and they were all staring at me. The room was long and wide, there were desks lined up and flags hanging down from the wall. The air was thick, as if they had been talking about something serious, and silence filled the room.

RING, RING

Everybody had their eyes on the telephone, which rested on top of the desk that Mustang was sat on. Whilst he picked up the phone, I slyly moved closer to Al and Edward, trying to make as less sound as I could.

"It's for you." My eyes looked up, and saw that Mustang was gazing at me.

"Me?"

His eyes were wary, "Yes, he says his name is Numbers." Numbers? Who's Num- oh, I get it. It's Robert. I walked up to the desk and took the phone as Mustang handed it to me.

"Hello?"

"Hey girl, nice to see that your still alive."

I rolled my eyes, "Same to you to. Mind telling me why you sent me here instead of just mailing the package?"

"Maybe later." When I see him, he's a dead man. Why does he have to be vague all of the time?

"So why are you calling me?"

The line was quiet with the occasional sound of static, "Don't come back."

"What?" My heart dropped and my stomach tightened.

"Let me rephrase that, don't come back right now. I'll call you again when it's fine to come home."

"Wait, what do you mean?" My voice was full of urgency, as I pleaded. "What's going on?"

Sounds of windows smashing, and gunshots filled the other line, "Damn, they're early. Listen, you know people so ask to stay with them. Don't do anything stupid and don't reveal your past unless you know they'll understand. Good luck Alice."

"Wait!" The line went dead. It was then that something clicked inside of me. He finally said my name. After all this time he finally called me Alice, not girl. And now I'm alone and homeless again. I really have taken his kindness for granted, after all, who would take a random stranger from the streets, with no background and possibly from a different country, into there homes? He bought me clothes and food, and he taught me things about this world and about clocks. What if he was hurt? What was happening back at home? Home. I'm even calling it home, and not _that place_.

"Alice? Are you ok?" Al asked. I slowly put the phone down and didn't look up.

I heard the sound of footsteps, noting how one footstep created a louder noise than the other.

"Alice?" asked Edward, he must have only been a few inches away from me since his voice was quite loud. I peeked through my hair and caught a glimpse of Edward lowering his head, trying to see my face.

"I'm fine," I lifted my head and put on a fake smile, "it's nothing."

His brows furrowed, not believing me one bit. "Who was the phone call from?"

My face fell for a second, but I quickly composed it. "A… a friend."

"Really?"

"Yes. You don't know any hotels around here do you?" I inquired, trying to change the subject.

"Hotels?" asked Al

"Hotels or any places that allow people to stay for a while, I guess you could say that I'm looking for a temporary place stay."

"What happened?" demanded Mustang, who had his fingers intertwined together, and had placed his elbows on the desk. Damn, I've got to come up with a lie quickly.

"My home is being renovated, it's quite old and it would be dangerous if I stayed there any longer." I explained, keeping a straight face and making my voice sound firm. Nobody looked like they believed me, but nevertheless they said nothing. I guess they couldn't say much since they didn't have much right to, it's not like I was breaking the law by lying.

"Brother and I will take you to one; we can catch up on the way there," spoke Al, breaking the awkward silence.

"Thank you. You can go back to your meeting now, I'm sorry for interrupting."

"Its fine," Mustang sighed, "Alright everyone, the meetings over. I need someone to accompany Fullmetal back to Resembool."

"I've got tons of work to do, so I gotta go back to central soon." Hughes said.

"I can't leave HQ" stated Mustang.

"It's very hectic to watch over the colonel." Hawkeye remarked.

Havoc raised his hand, "Got zero confidence in protecting him when it's that dangerous."

The other people also raised their hands, "Same as what he said."

The only person in the room that hadn't said anything was Armstrong. Edward looked in distraught as he realised who would be escorting him. Suddenly Armstrong grabbed Edward and hugged him, whilst weeping for either joy or sadness, really I couldn't tell.

"I've heard about you Edward Elric. Your pure love that made you try bring back y-"

Edward kicked him in the face before he could say anything more.

"Don't come near me."

"I am moved!"

"Alice, do you mind stepping outside the room for a moment? We're about to discuss something that only the military should know," Mustang requested.

"Sure." I hurried out of the room, closing the door on my way out. I rested the back of my head against the wall. What do I do now?

"Alice, your still here?" I moved my head slightly to the side and saw the man that I had met earlier.

"I'm just waiting for someone Major Weber."

"Just call me Karl, a friend of his is a friend of mine," I bit my lip and flinched. I guess it's going to take me a while to get use to hearing his name without getting the feeling of someone squeezing my heart. "Are you okay, you look pale?" Should I tell him? He might be able to tell me what's happened to Robert, and why people are after him.

"I-I just got a call from him. I think his in trouble, and he told me not to come back until its safe." Karl's face dropped, pain flashed through his eyes. He didn't say anything, but instead he put his hand on top of my head, ruffling my hair.

"Don't worry; this happens to him quite a lot. You should do as he says, he knows what his doing." This happens a lot? Why?

"Why?" I asked, voicing out my thoughts.

He looked a bit uncomfortable, "I'm not allowed to say. He'll tell you when the time is right. Have you got a place to go?"

"The Elric brothers are taking me to a hotel," he seemed surprised.

"You know the Elric brothers?"

"We're more like acquaintances, are they famous or something?"

"The oldest one is the youngest State Alchemist in history, getting his title at the age of 12," I thought it was a bit weird how they were both the only people around my age that were involved with the military, "they travel around a lot. Why don't you go with them, to get things off your mind?"

"What? I can't just impose myself and spontaneously announce that I'm travelling with them."

"Ask them. Plus, I heard that they're looking for something. Maybe if you go with them, you might be able to find out more about him." He's right, at this rate I'll never find out anything about Robert.

"I thought you said he'll tell me when the time is right. Even if I went and travelled, how would he call me if I'm going up and down the country?"

"He might not tell you until it's been a few years, and like I said before, don't worry, he always knows want to do. Do you have enough money to travel?" I took my purse from my bag that Robert had given me, counting everything. Something shiny caught my eye, and I pulled out a silver medallion. A shape of a star had been engraved on it, with a clock in the middle and instead of normal numbers, it was roman numerals.

"What's this?" Karl shuffled closer to me and viewed his surroundings, before resting his eyes on mine.

"Don't lose this, its very special," he whispered, "just go to any bank, show it to them and ask for as much money as you want." Is he serious? He looks serious…

"What is it?"

"Let's just say, his family is known for a lot of things and that they earned _a huge_ amount of money. As an alternative of keeping there money in one bank and having to pay a lot of interest, they put money in every bank in the country, in case they needed it when they were travelling." I hastily put the medallion back in my purse, and hid the purse in the inner pockets of the bag. He's that rich? He must be like the Amestrian version of a celebrity back in my world, well the rich part anyway. Is that why people are after him? No, that can't be it; if it was then Karl wouldn't have a problem saying his name out in public, and that doesn't explain why he is so secretive.

"Why does h-"

The door next to me clicked, and creaked loudly as it opened. The military officers quickly rushed out, going off to do there jobs.

"I need to go; I'll get in trouble if I get caught slacking off and not doing my work. Good luck trying to convince them." He dashed away, before I could say anything else. I internally moaned, if I remember from the conversation that I had with Al and Edward, Al will be easy to convince, but Edward might take a while to work on. Edward stormed out of the room angry and annoyed. Oh great, this is going to be fun.

**Dun, Dun, Dunnnnn. Ooooo, drama and suspense.**

**I was actually looking through what I had written on the description, and remembered that this was supposed to have romance. There will be, it just will take a bit of time for them to both get to know each other.**

**Oh, and well done to anyone who noticed that the part when they were saying about escorting them, was actually from the manga. I had to change Armstrong's line though.**

**Please review, I will give metaphorical/imaginary waffles (not cookies, waffles are better).**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hanashi o suru (heres your chocolate chip waffle), LeFay Strent (you get a plain waffle, dowsed with a crap load of sugar and syrup), PurpleStarsGreenFire (you get a half purple and green waffle) and IAmTheRedOne (you get a red waffle with a number 1 in the middle). Thanks for the reviews/alerts/favourites!**

**I've got a clearer idea of how the story is going to go, and what's going to happen (in other words I wrote a plan… I hate extra work).**

**There is a tad bit of swearing in this chapter, I couldn't really avoid it since it's from the original dialogue. **

**Disclaimer: No I don't own FMA**

**Random guy: and you never will**

**Me: …. Random guy, if you don't shut up, I'll make a oneshot about you being eaten by sharks.**

**(Random guy runs away screaming)**

**Me: on with the story**

Edward, Al and Armstrong were currently walking with me down the empty streets of West City. Unfortunately I had been too chicken to ask them straight up about letting me join, but instead had asked them to join me for dinner at a restaurant. It was weird how they had put Al in a wooden crate and carried him around, they said it would be easier than having civilians question why a suit of armour was walking around with half of his body gone. When we had gone into the restaurant, we started getting weird looks from people; then again if you saw a giant man carrying a crate of armour on his shoulder like it was nothing, you'd be pretty freaked out. After we had been, they offered to walk me to a hotel, well Al and Armstrong did, Edward didn't really get a say in the decision. Night was approaching fast the lamps were lit, providing a dim light. The streets grew quiet, and the night breeze was freezing my legs off. Damn dress.

"So where are you lot heading off to tomorrow?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood. They had all been tired and annoyed after coming out of the meeting room.

"Resembool, we have a friend there who's a mechanic. She's going to fix brothers automail."

"Automail? What's that?" Once again, I was getting the where-have-you-been-living-for-the-past-50-years look. I have to admit, it was starting to get on my nerves. Whenever I asked a question, I would get the look as if they doubted my sanity. It's not my fault I don't know the customs here.

"It's short for automotive armoured prostheses or artificial body parts. It works just as well as a normal arm," explained Edward, who was clutching the jacket sleeve, where his arm should have been. Crap, he looks more depressed than he did before.

"Really? That's great! Think of all those poor people who finally have a chance to move parts of their body, which they couldn't do before." I glanced at Edward, who was looking at the floor. Well it's now or never. I stopped and turned around, looking at their faces and rubbing my arm for comfort.

"Erm…" I bit the bottom of my lip, and looked nervously at them, "I now this sounds random and I know we haven't really known each other for a long time bu-"

"Just get on with it." Edward had his full attention on me, and was not looking amused. I took a deep breath and clutched my fist.

"Canitravelwithyou?" the words came out in a rush, then I realised they probably had no idea what I just said. "Can I travel with you?" I asked, in a much calmer voice.

"No, its bad enough Armstrong has to come with us. We don't need someone else tagging along," Edward stated in a monotone voice.

"Please Edward, I promise I won't be a burden."

"Why do you want to travel with us?" questioned Al, his voice sounded a bit calmer than Edwards, but I could hear the doubt in his voice.

"I heard you travel around a lot, and I'm looking for something. Since I don't really travel and you guys know so much about different places, I thought…." I trailed off, knowing that they got the picture.

"I don't know..." I crossed my hands together and gave a puppy dog face. Tears formed around my eyes, and trailed slowly down my face.

"Pllleeeaaaaassssseeeeeeee! I promise I'll be good," I begged.

"I think we should assist this young lady," said Armstrong. Yes! One convinced two to go. I diverted my gaze onto Al, who looked as if he would break down soon.

"I guess it couldn't hurt." Hell yes! I gave it my all and stared at Edward.

"No."

"What? Why?"

Edwards face was serious, "We don't travel around for fun. We do it because we're looking for something."

"Well maybe I can help you loo-"

"You shouldn't get involved, it could be dangerous."

"I can look after myse-"

"The hotels right behind you."

I turned around and noticed a big building, with the words 'HOTEL' written on. I turned back around to plead again, only to find them gone. Great what do I do now?

I walked to the receptionist and asked for a room. Whilst waiting, I realised something, just because they said I couldn't go with them, didn't mean I couldn't conveniently follow them. I guess you could call it taking stalking to a new level, but maybe if I annoy them enough, they'll let me go with them (willingly anyway). When the receptionist handed me the keys to my room, I asked when the next ride to Resembool was. Since Edward needs to get his arm fixed, they'll probably go for the first train back so I'll take the first train that goes to Resembool (I'm glad I watched a load of detective films). Now it's finally time for a good night's sleep.

* * *

_I was in a pit of darkness; I wasn't falling but was just suspended there in space. Orbs of light floated around, bringing warmth and light, I hadn't felt this comfortable for a long time. Some of the orbs started to arrange themselves into something: A figure of a human. The features of the human became more defined; it started growing skin, hair and nails. The more human-like it became, the more it started to look like me. When it had stopped, it slowly opened its eyes. She was wearing a white strapless dress that flowed down, her pale skin was luminous and her gentle brown eyes were filled with nothing but kindness and warmth. She looked exactly like me, but instead of having long black hair, she had black hair that went up to the bottom of its chin. She grinned and waved her hand excitedly. _

"_Who are you? You're not going to say something like; I'm you or something like that?"_

"_I'm kind of like you, but I'm not like you, I'm more different. I'm my own person," she explained. _

"_That's…. really confusing."_

"_All will be revealed in due time, you just need patience."_

"_What are you, my mother?"_

"_No, I said that I'm kind of like yo-"_

"_Okay, okay I get it. It was a joke. So what do I call you then?"_

_She tilted her head to the side, and drew her forefinger to her lips, "I can't tell, you have to find that out yourself." I groaned, oh great another mystery I have to solve._

"_Am I going to see you every time I sleep?"_

"_Only when I need to contact you or you need to talk to me."_

"_Why is everyone I meet so vague? First Robert, Karl was ok, now you..."_

_Her eyes looked sad, "Robert… you're off to find out about him."_

_I arched my eyebrow, "You know him?"_

_She smiled, "Yes I did. Are you sure you want to go on with this journey? It will be dangerous, especially with the people who you are travelling with, and some things will be harder to believe than others."_

_I crossed my arms, "If you haven't noticed, I have a healthy and strong mental ability, since I haven't gone crazy yet. Plus, coming here WAS dangerous, the fact that every minute I stay here, the more chance the military will be cautious of me and start to investigate about me. I've died once, so I might as well take every opportunity I get and live life to the fullest." _

_She nodded her head, "Good luck Alice."_

* * *

I woke up with sweat dripping down my forehead. I'm pretty sure that this is the third time someone has said good luck to me. I quickly changed into my 'borrowed' pair of black trousers and a cosy purple jumper. I don't care if I get weird looks, the dress can go die for all I care, after having to walk around with scabby knees and really cold legs, I'd rather just stick to trousers. I packed everything, quickly wrote in my notebook what had happened to me so far, and pegged it down the street. About 10 minutes later, I gave up running and was sweating badly. I'm bad at sports. I mean REALLY bad. If you gave me a ball to throw, lets just say you better not be around me when I throw it, but dodging on the other hand, that's something I'm good at. Well it was kind of expected, you can't be really smart and talented at sports at the same time, you can only pick one. I was blessed with the ability of intellect, unfortunately since I can learn things pretty fast, I became lazy. Lazy as in, I wouldn't even bother walking 2 metres away to throw my rubbish in the bin, I asked my friends instead.

After 20 minutes of strolling down the streets and enjoying the fine scenery, I had finally made it to the train station. I saw Edward and Armstrong already sitting on the train, so I went and bought a ticket, and then I joined them. Edward looked really uncomfortable being squished to the side of the train, he was pulling a why-me face.

"Morning."

"What are you doing here?" he snapped.

I smirked, "Oh my, isn't this convenient how we're ALL on the same train to the same place," I crossed my arms and leaned back, "I hope you know where this is going."

Edward deadpanned, "You're not going to stop following us, are you?"

I grinned, "I didn't plan to stop. You see, unfortunately I was born with a stubborn attitude, and I'm not the kind of person who gives up once I have my mind set. So have fun trying to get rid of me."

Edward opened his mouth, ready to say something but was cut off.

Knock, Knock.

The sound of knocking brought our attention to the window next to Edward.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes!" announced Edward

He looked cheerful, "Hey. The guys from HQ were to busy to drop by, so they sent me here instead. I've brought a message from Roy." He calls Mustang by his first name, they must be close friends.

"From the Colonel?"

"He says, 'Post-processing is a bit of a pain, so I will not permit you to die within my jurisdiction' that's all."

Edward looked pissed, "Tell him I said, 'Rodger that, I will not die before you do, Colonel Shit.'" Can he really say that without getting trouble? I thought the government was supposed to be really strict.

Hughes laughed, "Wicked brats are a plenty in the world. You and that bastard Roy ought to have long lives." Well, he must be pretty close to Mustang considering he just called him that. Hughes then noticed me and smiled.

"Hey, how's your hands and knees."

"Their fine now, the wounds scabbed over. Thanks for the concern."

"No problem, so what are you doing on the train with them." His eyes wavered to Edward, who was looking angry, before looking back at me again.

I smiled, "Travelling."

He saluted us, "Well then, be careful on your journey. If you pop by central, give a holler."

They saluted him back, except from me who just smiled and waved. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave.

The train made a loud noise, and started to slowly move. An awkward silence hung over us, until Edward decided to break it.

"Fine." Huh?

"Fine what?"

"Fine as in, you can travel with us" I squealed in delight, "IF, you promise to stay out of our way," I nodded enthusiastically, "and if you get into any trouble, don't expect us to come an save you."

"Thank you, thank you, and thank you a million times. I _really_ appreciate your kindness," it then occurred to me why it seemed too quiet, "where's Al?" I moved my head from side to side and viewed the area, but couldn't spot him.

Edward turned to Armstrong, "That reminds me, you did put Al on this train didn't you?"

Armstrong cupped his chin with his thumb and forefinger, whilst sparkles appeared on his head, "hohoho, indeed he is here. Al is in the livestock cart."

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK MY LITTLE BROTHER WAS?" he shouted, earning the attention of the other passengers.

"I thought it would be lonely to be by himself," Armstrong remarked, sparkles were still around his head. I've got to ask him to teach me how to do that sometime; it would be funny to use it to piss people off.

"STOP SCREWING AROUND!"

"Why are you not happy? It's large, cheap and lively. Does he not have everything he wants?" Edward looked like he was going to blow his top off, so I thought that now would be a good time to intervene.

"I think what Edward is trying to say is that Al is human, and it would be harsh to put him with a bunch of animals, rather than being with us." They both turned to me, Armstrong looked at me as if he still didn't understand, but Edward gave me that questioning look again. This is going to be an awkward ride.

**I had to change it, at first I thought about letting them agree in the streets that she could travel with them but I thought that, that wouldn't really happen in real life (or real story life or whatever). So instead I made her go stalker mode (desperate times call for desperate measures).**

**Please Review, I offer bananas! (They're high in potassium, who would not want an awesome banana….okay I take that back, I wouldn't want one. These will be magical different coloured bananas, you can't argue with that.) **


	9. Chapter 9

**Hanashi o suru, Falling Raene, The Name Is Greed, IAmTheRedOne and Rokuchuchu, you all get magic purple bananas! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed/favourited/alerted. (Trust me, if you didn't I would have already given up writing since I'm lazy).**

**To answer everybody's question about what the story is based on, I posted it on the second chapter…this is based on the manga.**

**And like I said in the chapter 8 notes, the chat between Hughes and Edward is from the original dialogue, I never changed that line.**

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: so, when I was typing this chapter, I found it difficult to write something's that happened, but since it was from her point of view it was hard to type. It's kind of hard to explain, although I can see why other writers put the story either in a 3rd person or switching point of views. So the question is do you want it in 3rd point of view or 1st point of view? (I don't plan on doing it from the point of views of the canon characters, since I have no confidence that I would be able to portray them properly.) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OCs, capisci? **

CHOO, CHOO!

Birds flew past the window, and the chatter from the other passengers were fairly low. I would have nearly fallen asleep, if not for the thought that they would purposely leave me on the train, without waking me up when it was our stop. It seemed to be mid-day, clouds were plastered across the sky and the sky itself was a brilliant blue. The train was moving past giant mountains, which had snow on the top making it glisten with light. The stench of oil and sweat hung in the air, and I was starting to get rather bored.

"So what's your mechanic like, it's my first time meeting one." I asked, trying to draw an interesting conversation in. Armstrong looked up, he looked curious as well.

"She's sort of a surgeon, a prosthetic harnesser and an automail tuner. She's an old friend, so she'll make it cheap and do a good job." Edward seemed calm when he said this, his golden eyes showed lit up as he talked about his memories.

"Wow, that's amazing! How old is she?"

"16." ….. What? She can do all when she's my age? I can't even watch any SAW films yet she's a surgeon… I feel lame.

Edward raised his eyebrow, "What?"

"Nothing, its just amazing how you've all managed to accomplish things at such a young age." It was only after I said it, I realised that I sounded like an old lady complimenting 'today's youth.' Nevertheless, he didn't seem to mind. He had a smug face, _I think I actually made his ego bigger, _I thought.

As time went on (I had forgotten that these train rides take hours, oh joy), I observed more of my surroundings, then at Armstrong and Edward. My eyes were drawn on his golden eyes; I had to hold myself back from laughing. I should nickname him Cullen or something but he wouldn't get the reference, I mentally sighed, I'm going to miss making references about things from my world. Are they even his real eye colour, or is he wearing contact lenses? Do they even have contact lenses at this time?

"Hey Edward, do you wear contact lenses?"

He appeared to be confused, "no, why?" I guess coloured contact lenses weren't invented until later on, but seriously, who has golden eyes? Can you blame me for asking?

"Never mind." I place my elbow on the window sill, and rested my chin on the palm of my hand. To be honest I was hoping to learn more about alchemy, but I don't think I would be able to do it, since I'm not from this world. I gently rested the side of my face against the window, until I noticed Edward staring at me.

"Take a picture, it lasts longer."

He rolled his eyes, "I want to ask you something."

I shifted my head slightly, "No I will not switch places with you, if you don't want to get squished then don't sit next to Major Armstrong next time then, no offense Major."

"It is fine; these muscles have been passed down the Armstrong line for generations," he claimed, with sparkles appearing on his head.

"…okay?"

"I wasn't going to ask you that," said Edward, regaining my attention again.

"Oh, well I thought you looked really uncomfortable there."

"Are you going to let me ask you the question?"

I smirked, "Maybe, maybe not. Just because you ask me something, doesn't mean that I'll give you a straight answer." I could tell that I was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Jeez, can't you concentrate on something for more than 5 minutes?" he twitched with annoyance.

"Nope, I have a short attention span." I smiled briefly, but then I put a sombre face on, "I'm guessing that's not the question you want to ask me though."

Edward leaned forward, his eyes were filled with curiosity and he wore a serious expression, "I just wanted to ask you why you wanted to travel with us. You hardly know us."

"I trust people easy and you guys seem like genuinely nice people. You ask weird questions." He looked even more confused and troubled than before. "Your wondering why I haven't asked you anything about why your brother is in a suit of armour, aren't you."

He looked grim, "When people generally find out, that's the first thing they ask."

"And it's annoying to explain, right?" He nodded, "Everybody has secrets. Some are darker than others or are hard to believe. It's not my business to stick my nose in places where I'm unwanted." I paused, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm such a hypocrite, I tell Edward I won't ask about him yet here I am trying to find out about Robert's past. I tried to argue with my conscience, by saying that he could be hurt right now, but then I remembered that Al literally doesn't have a body and Edward doesn't have an arm and a leg, yet I'm not asking them what happened. I stopped looking at Edward, and looked through the window again, trying to ignore the guilt that was gripping my gut.

The train was slowing down, and coming to a stop. People were shuffling off and onto the train, and it was easier to breath with there being less people on. The train had stopped outside a town that reminded me of Penro, the town that I'd been living in until now. Armstrong suddenly sprung up, and looked through the window. He abruptly yanked up the window and leaned closer, grabbing on the edge of it.

"Dr Marcoh! Are you not Dr Marcoh? It is me, Alex Louis Armstrong from Central," he bellowed. The old man, who had been causally walking down the road, looked terrified and ran for his life.

"You know him?" Edward asked, whilst I rubbed my poor ears.

"Yes, he is a very capable alchemist from the alchemic research agency of central. He took part in research to use alchemy for medical purposes, but disappeared after the civil war." There was a Civil war? I should find a book about the history of this place, since I don't understand what they're talking about half of the time.

Edward jumped up, "Let's get off."

"Now? I thought we needed to fix you arm?" I inquired; I could see the determination in his eyes.

"He might know something about biological transmutation," he shouted, while sprinting off the train. I'm guessing this Dr Marcoh guy studied in human bodies, hence the word biological. Does he plan on growing his arm back using biological transmutation? Can you even do that? Armstrong and I rushed off the train, to find Edward shouting at us.

"You have to unload Al and the luggage, Hurry up!" I went and grabbed our belongings from one of the cabins and met everybody else at the side of the train.

As soon as we got everything, we explored the town asking people if they had seen the old man. The town was nogalistic: the scent, the air around me and the town itself brought back memories of my first day in the market place of Penro. The more I looked around, the more I became conscious of the fact that I was no longer at home. Armstrong stopped and started to talk to one of the locals.

"Did you see this elderly man pass by?" Armstrong asked, pointing to the picture in his notebook.

"…Major, you're great at drawings…" Edward remarked, looking shocked.

"I'm glad to know that we're both on the same thought patterns…"

Armstrong smiled and sparkled, "This is the artistry that had been passed down to generation after generation of the Armstrong's."

"Oh, that's Dr Marlo!" Marlo… Marcoh, couldn't he come up with a better alias? After talking with a few more people, we found out that Marcoh was actually a nice guy. The locals praised him about his kindness and how they were healed by a flash of light.

"How can you be healed by a flash of light?"

"It's most likely to be alchemy," Armstrong replied.

"So light appears when you do alchemy?"

Edward snorted, "What haven't you seen alchemy before?"

"…..no." Edward halted and twisted his neck so that he was facing me.

"Alice."

"Shut up! I know what you're going to say so don't say anything."

He laughed and shook his head, "You come out with the most intelligent things, but you don't have common sense."

"SHUT UP!" I stomped away from him, until I was further ahead of everyone. I could hear Al telling his brother that what he did was rude, and that he should apologise. Fat chance, Edwards too stubborn. Actually, after talking to him on the train, he seems more relaxed around me, although I can tell that he's still a bit suspicious about me. Not that I can blame him, I have slipped up quite a few times.

I was so deep in thought, that I didn't even notice anything until I bumped into someone. I glanced up and saw a woman wearing a brown cloak; her hood was up so I couldn't see much of her features, but she was shorter than me by a few inches. Her eyes were black like the night sky and seemed empty, as if you would lose your soul if you looked any longer. Her eyes hardened as she studied me, and then she slammed he shoulder into mine before I could apologise.

"Pathetic girl," she spat, her voice was laced with venom and hatred.

She wandered away, whilst I stood there in shock. What just happened?

"Alice, what are you doing standing there?" The voice was Al's, and it wasn't far behind me. _Brush it off_, I thought, _pretend it never happened_.

"N-nothing. Where's the house then?"

"Not far ahead."

I waited until everybody was ahead of me, then I trailed behind them. I didn't say anything and kind of blanked everyone out again, I didn't even notice Edward stopping in front of me until he coughed. He looked annoyed and embarrassed; he had trouble focusing his eyes on me.

"What?"

"I-" he cut off and rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm sorry for teasing you earlier." He then quickly walked away, catching up to Armstrong and Al.

"See, that wasn't hard, was it brother?"

"Yes, you and Miss Alice should not be having fights. You need to act like a gentleman an-"

"Shut up," he yelled. Did they think the reason I was annoyed was because of Edward? I smiled and quickly caught up to them.

"You didn't need to apologise, we were just messing about," I told Edward.

"You could have told me that before Armstrong gave me a 'pep talk'," he grumbled.

"A pep talk?"

"Let's just say it involved taking his shirt off." I shivered, remembering the first time I saw Armstrong: he wasn't wearing a shirt.

We approached a house where Dr Marcoh supposedly lives, it looked pretty ordinary.

"Hey Edward, are you sure this is the house? It looks normal."

He rolled his eyes, "Of course it's normal, what did you expect?" I don't know, I thought that doctors had big houses and everything.

"Never mind."

He looked sceptical at first, but then he sighed, "Alice, you don't have to call me by my full name, most people don't."

"What do people normally call you?"

"Ed." Well, it's a lot easier to say and I don't think of Twilight every time I say his name.

"Okay Ed." That sounds really weird; it's going to take me a while to get use to saying it.

We all got to the top of the stairs and Ed stepped forward, knocking on the door. Wait, if we meet this guy, they'll end up talking about Ed's arm and leg and Al's body. So won't I find out about what happened to them?

**I swear, the more I write about Edward, the more annoyed I get. WHY CAN'T I GET IT TO SOUND LIKE SOMETHING EDWARD WOULD SAY? (Goes to the emo corner and starts poking the mushrooms on the floor). This is why the chapter was late, sorry.**

**Please Review…**


	10. Authors note

**Hey guys. I've never really done a chapter devoted to an authors note but this is kind of important. I'm putting the story on a temporary Hiatus. **

**Now don't shout at me, I know that I've only written 9 chapters and putting it on Hiatus is pretty stupid but I need to focus on my exams. If I don't pass I can't get into higher education. **

**Normally I would have pretty much said, screw the exams, but I decided to apply for one of those smart schools, so I have to get good grades to get in (A's and B's).**

**I'm really sorry **


	11. Chapter 10

**Hanashi o suru, IAmTheRedOne, Falling Raene, FMA and ATLA, virkelighetsflukt and Rokuchuchu, thank you for the reviews.**

**So you're all probably thinking if I'm not on Hiatus anymore…. Well I still am. I had half term, so I had time. Well, I didn't really but you guys made me feel bad.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, and wouldn't really want to. Too much stress.**

* * *

"… Well, I'm opening the door."

"Edwa- I mean Ed! You can't just open the door, it's rude."

Ed rolled his eyes, "Do you have a better idea? You saw him running away from us."

I didn't say anything, but glared at him instead. We had been here for a while, and after a few knocks, we heard no movement from the other side of the door, hence why we're in this situation. I crossed my arms and looked away feeling slightly guilty, after all this could technically be called breaking into someone's house. Ed gently pushed the wooden door open as I took a step back; I was expecting a crazy guy wearing a hockey mask to jump out, screaming gibberish, whilst holding a chainsaw and looking like a homicidal rapist (like they do in horror films) but I doubt that would happen.

"Hel-"Ed was cut off by a gun pointing to his head. He quickly moved to the side, as the man pulled the trigger, missing Ed by a few inches. I bit my lip, trying my hardest to suppress the laugh that was bubbling up inside of me.

"What did you come here for!" he shouted, his hand quivering and his body shaking quite badly. Ed, on the other hand, looked like he was going to wet himself or have a heart attack. Whilst I started to snigger, Ed shot me a dirty look as if to say that I didn't understand how dangerous the situation was (with an agitated old man aiming a gun at us and everything). Oh, I understood perfectly well but it's not everyday something as ironic as this happens right in front of you.

Ed looked away, but I gently tapped his shoulder to re-gain his attention, "I _really_ wish I had a camera. You should have seen your face Ed; it would have made an awesome meme!" I chuckled.

Ed growled and had an 'I'm-going-to-kill-you' expression, "That WASN'T funny! And what the hell is a meme?" I nearly facepalmed at his comment, is this going to happen every time I say something? I thought.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm sure there's a saying that goes 'what goes around, comes straight back around kicking you in the ass' or in this case shooting you in the face." I'm pretty sure if the saying 'if looks could kill' was true, then I would be dead. Ed was furious and he was literally twitching with anger.

"Ehm," Armstrong cleared his throat, gaining our attention. I then remembered where we were and that we had an audience watching us.

I blushed and looked down, "Sorry," I said in a quiet voice. Dr Marcoh no longer had the gun pointed at us but instead was staring at us with confusion. It was then that I finally had a good look at his face… he looked really tired.

"Err…so can we come in then?" I asked, whilst rubbing the back of my head.

* * *

We were all sat down around the large rickety table, which looked like it would fall down any second. The structure of his house was pretty basic and his living room had his everyday essentials. The inside of the house itself, didn't look much different than the houses from Penro, so luckily for me, I didn't keep on staring at how different the houses were. Although, there goes my theory of all doctors being rich, then again everything in this world everything was backwards.

"I couldn't stand it any longer," stated Marcoh in frustration, "it was an order from the superiors but because of it, I had to stain my hands by conducting research on such a thing…"

"Such a thing?" Ed repeated his face full of confusion. I leaned forward slightly wondering what they were talking about; I wasn't really listening to the beginning part of the conversation.

Armstrong looked concerned, "Just what did you research and what did you escape with?"

Marcoh rested his forehead on his fingers, he was sweating more than he did before and he looked hesitant on whether to tell us.

He eventually crossed his fingers and gazed at us warily, "I made the Philosopher's stone."

I glanced around noting how shock spread around the faces of everyone on the table, except for me who was confused. Philosopher's stone? Like in the story Harry Potter, where they all look for the stone? My brows furrowed, the more I thought about it the more confused I became. Why would people want a stones? Please tell me there isn't an evil guy called he-who-must-not-be-named. Not that I had anything against Harry Potter stories.

Marcoh continued to speak, "The research files and a stone are what I brought with me."

"You have a stone?" Ed shouted; I could detect the urgency in his voice. Is this what Ed and Al had been looking for?

Marcoh moved his wooden chair and got up, walking to the cabinet conveniently behind the table. He moved a bunch of bottles, before reaching in and grabbing a bottle that was hidden in the back. As he closed the cabinet door and making his was back to the table, I couldn't help but wonder how dangerous the stone must be, for it having to be hidden. I automatically thought back to the dream I had the night before, with that girl that looked like me.

_Are you sure you want to go on with this journey? It will be dangerous, especially with the people who are travelling with._

Which reminds me, who was she anyway?

"It's in here," Marcoh remarked, his voice had snapped me out of my thoughts.

The bottle that he was showing us, had a red liquid inside. I thought it was suppose to be a stone.

"A stone? Isn't this a liquid?" Ed asked, voicing out my thoughts.

Marcoh poured the liquid on the table but instead of it spreading every where, it stayed together in a blob.

"Huh?" Ed and I exclaimed.

"The philosopher's stone, the heavenly stone, the great elixir, the red tincture, the fifth element. Just as the Philosopher's stones have several names their shapes are not limited to that of stones," he explained, whilst Ed and I took turns poking the stone.

"It's kind of like jelly, but isn't as sticky," Ed raised his eyebrow, "it's in a state called colloidal suspension. It's something to do with the molecule structure or something, honestly I can't remember." I lifted my head up, and noticed I was getting weird stares. "Err… random fact of the day?"

I always had this weird habit where I'd remember really random facts, and I'd blurt it out. Talk about word vomit. "So why isn't it a shape of a stone at the moment?" I asked, trying to get everyone's attention away from me.

Marcoh clenched tightly to the bottle, "It is because, that one is an Imperfect object. They eventually reach their limits and become unusable. They were used secretly in the civil war, and there overwhelming power were demonstrated." Wow, where they're that strong? I'm guessing it's probably equivalent to nuclear power, but they haven't studied into it as much. Ed started to mutter something, but I could see the grin that was growing on his face. Uh oh, why do I have a bad feeling about this?

He slammed his hand on the table and exclaimed "Dr Marcoh, can you show me the research files you took?" I propped my elbow on the table, resting my chin on the palm of my hand and sighed. Great, I thought, more manual labour.

Marcoh eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at Armstrong, "Major Armstrong, who is this boy…?"

Armstrong looked into his eyes and replied in a serious voice, "a state alchemist."

At this point in the conversation, my short attention span was starting to kick. My mind wondered for a while, trying to pick up the pieces of what I was trying to investigate. Could Robert be a criminal? But then I remembered what Karl had already told me about his family being rich. Maybe he was part of the mafia, but my mind argued back saying that if he was, then why was he living in a small town like Penro? No matter how hard I tried, every time I thought he was a bad person, something in the back of my mind told me it wasn't true. Maybe I was under the influence of that girl that I saw in my dream. I really need to give her a nickname or something, other wise I'm just going to get confused.

"I know it was a stupid decision," Ed's loud voice brought me back into reality again, "but until I accomplish my goals, I'm going to have to continue to sit on a bed of thorns!" Ed's voice sounded strained, as if he was in a lot of pain. He clutched on his right shoulder, and his knuckles started going white. I realised then, that Ed was about to explain what happened to him and his brother.

"Ed," I spoke as softly, trying and ease the tension in the atmosphere, "I can leave now for a moment if you want me too…." I trailed off and looked in his golden orbs, which were judging whether he should or not. Suddenly he looked away, breaking eye contact and hiding his face in his fringe.

"Its fine," I smiled, "Tell me when you're ready." I pushed myself away from the table and walked to the door until I was a few inch away. "I'll meet you guys at the train station." I pushed the door handle and walked out of the house, closing the door on my way out. Then I rested my head on the back of the door for a minute, before walking down the stairs.

Was I angry? Well of course I was, it's not like I'm an untrusting person so it hurts me that they don't want to tell me, but its none of my business. They haven't asked about my business so I should return the favour. I balled my hands into a fist and looked down. This would be harder than I thought. I'm generally good at suppressing my feelings, and not telling anyone how I feel, but now I wasn't sure how long I would last. Maybe I need to buy a punching bag or something.

I roamed through the streets for a while, making sure that I didn't go too far away from the train station. There wasn't much to see, so after 5 minutes I got bored and decided to sit on a bench in front of the station.

The sky was unusually blue today with no clouds, although that was probably due to the lack of pollution. The temperature was just perfect, it was sunny with a slight breeze, and I was enjoying the weather. The noise of shuffling had caught my interest, and an old woman appeared, slowly making her way past me. Her grey hair was tied in a bun, and she was wearing a pale yellow dress with a black shawl. As she walked pass, she dropped a gold pocket watch on the floor. She slowly bent down, picked it up and observed it for a while, before frowning.

"Erm… excuse me, but is something wrong?" As she turned to face me, I studied her face. She had many wrinkles, and looked incredibly old (no offense old lady) but for some weird reason her wise blue eyes seemed as if she was ancient and a lot older than she was.

"Oh nothing deary, it's just that my watch has stopped working."

"…well I could take a look at it if you want."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, however she handed me the watch. I grabbed a screw driver that I found in my trouser pockets earlier that day (since these weren't my trousers, they were Roberts), and opened the watch. The old lady sat next to me, watching my moves as I made an attempt to the fix the watch. After 15 minutes, I handed her the watch and sighed, slouching further on the bench.

"I couldn't do anything about the broken glass, but it should work for a while. You should probably get some of the parts changed in the watch."

She smiled, "Thank you very much. You've done a wonderful job."

I blushed, "it's nothing really…" I muttered. It's true; I've seen Robert fix a clock in 2 minutes.

"You know, you remind of someone who fixed many clocks." My ears perked up when she said this, maybe she might know something about him.

"Does the surname 'Fimmen' ring a bell by any chance?"

"Fimmen? It does in fact."

"Really?"

"But I'm afraid I can't recall much about it." Damn, it looks like this investigation is going to be harder than I thought, "But if you want to find out information about him, you should ask people from the military." I groaned as she got up. Are you kidding me? It looks like I'm going to have to plead Karl or something.

I glanced up to thank the old lady, but she had already gone. Okay, that's weird I thought. Wait, didn't she say 'he' when she was talking to me? I never mentioned a he…

"Miss Alice! Are you okay?" that voice… its Armstrong's. I turned to my side and saw them walking closer. Armstrong and Ed joined me on bench, but I could tell that Ed felt a bit uncomfortable.

"So Ed, did he give you the files then?"

He gazed at me for a second, before sighing and resting his right arm on top of the bench, "No, but I really, really wanted it. Oh yeah, that reminds me. Major, are you going to tell Central about Dr Marcoh?"

Armstrong sparkled as he lifted his head, "The man I met today was only a town doctor named Maulo." Ed and I looked at each other, and grinned. I was glad that it was Armstrong that had come with us.

"Hey Al, how long do you have you stay in the box?"

"Just until brother fixes me," he replied, as cheerful as usual.

"Hey!" we all glanced up to see Marcoh making his was toward us. When he reached the platform, he stopped and panted. Sweat was dripping from his face as he walked closer to use, holding an envelope in his hand.

He handed the envelope to Ed, "This is the place where the files are hidden. Look at this if you won't regret knowing the truth, you will uncover the truth behind the truth." I nearly laughed, it reminded me of inception. Marcoh was about to go back until I remembered what the old lady said.

"Wait!" he stopped and turned around, waiting for me as I ran to him, "does the surname 'Fimmen' mean anything to you?"

His face paled in an instant, as his eyes widened with horror, "Fimmen? How do you know about them?"

I removed all emotions from my face, "It's not important. What do you know about them?" I demanded; I could feel the stares from the others boring into my back. Marcoh already looked really worn out, so I knew that he would easily give in to the pressure. "Although I don't know much about them personally, their names are only known to those who are high up in the government," It's a good thing I hadn't mentioned his name when I met Mustang, "Thomas and Sofie Fimmen were one of the most powerful couples in all of Amestris."

"Were?"

"Unfortunately Thomas Fimmen died, and his wife shortly disappeared after his death." Where they Roberts parents?

"What did he die of?"

"Old age," I crossed my arms and bit my lip. If he died of old age, then they must have been his Grandparents.

"Why were they powerful?"

Marcoh spoke in a strained voice, "They both had abilities that did not come from alchemy." So like psychics?

"What were they?"

"I don't know," he look dejected, and tired out from my questioning. Looks like I'll need to do some snooping around, when I get back to East City.

"Thanks. Do you mind if this conversation was only kept between you and me…?" I quickly viewed my surroundings, making sure that no one was in the hearing range.

He nodded, "I didn't plan to."

I sighed in relief and went back to the others, as Marcoh walked back home.

* * *

**There will be A LOT of ALONE time for Alice and Ed, when they get to Resembool (haha)**

**Please review**


	12. Chapter 11

**Hanashi o suru, FMA and ATLA, Falling Raene, MikiMoke, Guest, Usagi-chan123, YouKnowItsBadWhen, starrydreamer813 and 98, thank you for the reviews **

**So, I have no more exams (yey!) but I'm a procrastinator so the chapters will come in there own time. **

**Halfway through, I was listening to 'Now we are free' which explains the somewhat depressing part. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. **

**Random guy: I bet you wouldn't even do anything even if you did**

**Me: … challenge accepted **

"We're off to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz~ Da, da, da, da, da, da, I don't know how the lyrics goes! Cos we're off to see the-"

"Alice," I stopped singing to face Ed, who was giving me a dirty look.

"Yeah?" I smirked inwardly, knowing what he would say.

"Shut up."

I rolled my eyes, "Well I'm kind of bored if you haven't noticed. And my legs hurt like a bitc-."

Armstrong intervened, "Miss Alice! A young lady shouldn't be using such bad language."

"….sorry it's a force of habit."

"That's not my problem," Ed growled, ignoring Armstrong's comment.

"Well, considering how we'll be travelling together for a while, yes, it is your problem too."

He scowled and muttered something among the lines of me acting like a 3 year old.

It had been like this all the way walking on the dusty path through Resembool. Unfortunately for everyone else, they learned through the hard way that I didn't like walking long distances. Wait, let me rephrase that, I HATED walking long distances with a fiery passion. To be honest, I thought I was acting pretty toned down, trust me I could say a lot worse. I was actually planning on asking someone for a piggy back ride, but Armstrong was holding Al and the thought of Ed carrying me made me laugh.

I decided to stay silent for a while, allowing everyone the silence they dearly deserved. I breathed in the heavenly scent of fresh grass and clean air, comparing it to the smell of the smoky train. Being stuck on that train and going to the countryside reminded me of how nice it was to live in the countryside. No noise or bad fumes just open spaces and fresh air. I smiled as I lifted my head back, watching pigeons fly through the radiant shade of blue sky. The brightness illuminating from the sun pierced through the white clouds, I could already tell that I would love staying here.

As we approached a wooden house, which sat on the small hill with vast land space spreading out, a black dog with patches of white ran up to Ed. I noticed that its left front leg was a prosthetic one, leaving me curious on how it was actually possible to have a prosthetic body part. Who knows, maybe in the future in my old world they might actually have created prosthetic body parts that worked as well as the ones over here. It was funny how despite everyone here having the technology to create something like this and having alchemy, they still hadn't made phones or the internet.

The dog walked close to me so I stopped and bent down, lowering my hand so that the dog could smell it. I remembered someone telling me that when you see a dog, you're meant to let the dog smell you so it knows your scent and that it remembers you next time… or something like that, honestly I can't remember. When the dog had sniffed me, I petted its head and continued to follow everyone. As we got closer to the house, a short old lady stepped out wearing glasses and smoking a pipe.

"Hey, we need your help again, granny Pinako," Then Ed pointed to Armstrong, "This is Major Armstrong."

"I'm Alice Goodall, it's nice to meet you" I said, whilst Pinako shook both of our hands.

"Pinako Rockbell, it's nice to meet you too," she turned to face Ed, "In the time that you've gone, you got smaller." I stifled a laugh, and started to cough to cover it up.

"WHO DID YOU SAY WAS SMALL, MINI HAG!"

"OH YEAH, ULTRA SQUIRT!"

"MIDGET HAG!"

"Erm… Al, are they always like this?"

He sighed, "unfortunately yes, brother has a…err a _height issue._"

I snorted, "No kidding."

We all watched them lash out abuse at each other; it was hilarious to watch… if only I had popcorn with me.

All of a sudden, a feminine voice came from inside the house. "HEY! ED!"

A wrench flew from the house and smacked Ed on the head, causing him to fall on the floor and bleed. A blonde girl stepped out from the second floor wearing a jumpsuit that was unbuttoned from above the waist and was tied around her hips as well as wearing a black tube top.

She rested the palm of her hands on the rail of the balcony "Didn't I tell you to call at least once before you show up for maintenance check!"

"Winry, you Jackass!" wait, how come Ed can curse and I can't? "Are you trying to kill me!"

She laughed, "Welcome home!"

Ed pushed himself up and sat cross-legged on the ground, "Yeah."

"I'm home!" Al exclaimed.

I walked to Ed and rested my hand on his shoulder, before leaning down and whispering in his ear, "Your girlfriends got you whipped."

His head snapped towards mine, as a blush crept on his face, "S-s-she's not…"

I laughed, watching the conflicting emotions that grew on his red face. Either he has it bad for this girl or, by the looks of it, any romantic female interaction; I'll have to remember that to use against him next time. Everyone gave me a questioning look, but I just looked away trying to seem as innocent as I could. Pinako walked inside of the house, and the rest of us followed her.

When we had gotten inside, I was introduced to Winry. She seemed like a genuinely nice person and I was happy to talk to another female person after being stuck with a bunch of guys for such a long time.

"So how do you know Ed and Al?" Winry asked.

"I bumped into them on the outskirts of a town and then I met them again in East City."

She nodded, "I'm surprised that you're travelling with them. Ed doesn't usually like people hanging around him."

I smirked, "oh I know. Don't worry I have my ways."

She gave me a questioning look before fixing her gaze on Ed.

"Whaa!" Winry yelped pointing at Ed, who was sat on the sofa with a cup of coffee. She was shaking slightly from anger and her face was pale.

"Oh, sorry. It got busted up," he explained nonchalantly, as if it was something that was completely normal and happened often.

"Busted up? Wait one minute! Just how were you using that first-class automail that I had so pain-stakingly made?"

"Winry, maybe you should calm down a bit…" I suggested.

"Do you know how long it takes to make one?" She shouted, her eyes blazing with fury.

"Err…" I looked at Ed for help.

"Got smashed into little pieces," he remarked. With that comment, Ed earned a wrench thrown at his head by Winry.

"So what happened? Why's Al so busted up?" Al laughed awkwardly, unable to meet her eyes, "Just what are you guys doing?" She turned to face me, expecting me to answer as everyone else seemed so reluctant.

I put both my hands up in a surrender position, hoping that my answer wouldn't gain a wrench thrown at my head, "I don't really know, I didn't see what happened."

She frowned and glared at Ed, as he explained to her what we were planning to do after his arm and leg got fixed. The conversation soon moved on to his prosthetic body parts, and it was interesting to watch and to listen. Pinako had fastened on a spare leg for Ed to walk around with, but felt no need to get him a spare arm. She told him that it would only take 3 days to fix the broken parts, which surprised me. Shouldn't it take longer? I mean they were practically smashed to tiny pieces, I guess that's why people like Pinako and Winry are called professionals.

"Winry, could I watch you fix the parts?" I asked.

She looked surprised, "You're interested in automail?"

I sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck, "I've never really seen automail before, and it looks really interesting. I can fix clocks, but that's the closet thing to mechanics that I've done before."

Her eyes sparkled and she grinned, "Finally, someone else who appreciates the art of automail!" She leaned forward, clasping her hands together whilst grabbing mine, "I'd love to show you, and maybe you can tell me a bit the mechanics of clocks."

"I don't really know that much about it…"

Ed sneered, "Geez, give her a bit of space, engineering otaku."

Her eyebrow twitched with annoyance, "What did you say, pipsqueak?"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MOUSY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK?" Ed had pushed himself from the sofa and was staring directly in Winry's eyes; you could literally see the sparks that was flashing between them.

"Ed… she didn't say that." Wow, he really does have a bad height issue. I don't think I know anyone who has short issues as bad as he does.

"Brother, calm down." I sighed; thank goodness Al's there to calm everyone down.

Al was getting reassembled with the help of Armstrong, and a piece of white fabric was used to cover the gaping holes in the armour, so that it wouldn't raise suspicion from other people. I stared at them for a while, wondering how that happened to Al. I knew I shouldn't ask, but I couldn't help being curious. It's not everyday you meet someone who doesn't have a human body, and has armour instead. Al looked up and caught my gaze, making me quickly look away. I felt bad for staring at him, I should probably apologise later, but Winry dragged me away before I could say anything to him.

* * *

I had finally managed to drag myself from Winry after spending the whole day with her. Al joined us after a while, saying that Ed had gone off on a walk, so I apologised to him for staring and Al being the kind person he is, said it was fine and that he was use to it, making me feel even worse. After a few hours of listening to Winry, I got a bit bored. Its not that I didn't enjoy listening to her, I mean it was just as interesting as I had anticipated it to be but after a while it was kind of tiring and it didn't help that I had a short attention span. The day had really gone by like a blur; everything just went by so fast. It was hard to believe that it had already been a few hours, although by looking outside and seeing the sun move it was easy to tell.

I plodded into the living room, lifting my arms up and stretching before covering my mouth as I yawned. I plonked myself onto a bench, which was conveniently parked under a rectangular window, grabbing my legs and wrapping my arms around them so that they were pulled up to my chest. Leaning backwards a little, I watched as the sun started to set.

The crimson ball was hidden halfway between the hills; the clouds flashed colours of red and orange as it slowly floated by. The sky was gradually going from a lavender colour to a deep blue, and anything that was hit by the sunlight went up in flames of golden light. The breath taking sight was nostalgic, reminding me of the first time I was in this world, except this time I was inside a warm, safe environment and I no longer had the urge to cry.

I never understood the difference between crying and weeping. I remember my sister, Jade, telling me about it when she had seen my mum weep because of the divorce, although my mum tried her best not to cry around me. Jade would tell me that crying was when tears came out and you felt sad, however weeping was a completely different matter. To weep in sorrow, was when your eyes looked half crazed, you shake uncontrollably and you were able to think properly, only thinking about the feeling of emptiness that was eating you inside. She said to me it was the worst thing she'd seen in her life, to watch someone in utter despair and to know that no matter what you do or what you say, nothing would be able to cheer them up or help them. So all you can do is sit there and pick up the broken pieces. Of course I didn't remember much about what happened, with the brain tumour and everything, but I guess I'm thankful for that.

I sat there watching the sky shift colours until I heard the door in the room open. I didn't move, but instead stayed there as my eyes were glued to the beautiful landscape that was beyond the window. The door then closed and the sound of feet shuffling grew louder until it came to a stop, just a few feet away from me. I knew it was Ed; it was easy to tell by the sound of the clanking footstep from the metal leg.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?"

I smiled but still didn't move, "I could ask you the same thing."

He grunted and I heard the sound of the bench creaking from the other side. I shifted to my side slightly and peeked from the edge of my eyes to see that Ed was also looking through the window.

"So where have you been then? I ended spending the day with Winry so I didn't see you much."

"Just visiting some old places." This time I moved my head so that I was facing him. Ed's blonde hair was no longer in a plait that he always wore, but was just let down. He was wearing white shorts, which allowed me to see how much of his leg was prosthetic, and a baggy, grey sleeveless shirt. His elbow was placed on the window and his chin resting on the palm of his hand, with his finger curled towards him. The shimmering sunlight that streamed through the window, made his hair look even more golden, if that was even possible. I didn't even notice how long I was staring at him until he shifted his head, so that he was facing me. My brown eyes connected with his golden orbs, making me feel embarrassed for looking. I didn't even know why I was staring, I guess the lack of sleep and the excitement from the past few days had worn me down, I was really out of it at the moment.

He smirked, "take a picture, it lasts longer."

"Smartass," I muttered loud enough for him to hear. I knew his smirk would be even bigger since he won this fight.

I was too tired to think of a comeback. My eyes unconsciously wondered to the right side of his body, to where his arm should have been. I could see the stump, where the metal was. I raised my arm forward, so that I could get a better look, until my common sense smacked me on the side of my head, reminding me that I was acting rude. I dropped my arm to my side and looked away, murmuring 'sorry'.

"… It's fine. I'm use to it." Funny, how his brother said the exact same thing to me.

I looked up making eye contact with him again, "Do you think I could… you know, get a closer look. Since I've never actually seen anything like it before…" I trailed off. This is really unlike me, I must be exhausted.

He opened his mouth, and then he closed it. He sighed and the scratched the back of his head, "Fine, but this is only happening once. And you can't ask me for anything else."

My eyes widened, wow his actually letting me. He must be really tired or something, because there's no way he would normally let me do this, or maybe he feels bad for not telling me anything about what happened to him and his brother.

I edged closer to him, unsure how to approach him. This feels like the kind of awkwardness you get from trying to have your first kiss with someone, when you have no idea what to do. Wait, why am I even thinking about this? I shook my head, ignoring my weird/sleepy thoughts as I moved closer to him. I stopped when both the tips of our knees were touching. I slowly lifted both arms out, one hand pushing the sleeve of his shirt back, whilst the other hand inspected the metal. My finger tips trailed across the cool metal, against the bumpy yet smooth parts. I leaned forward even more, so that I could get a better look. It was fascinating to see, some of the parts I recognised from Winry teaching me, yet I had no idea what they were called or what and how it functioned.

Once again, my attention drifted off. My attention span gets a lot worse when I'm half asleep. I noticed the body heat that was emitting from Ed, and how close we actually were. I could hear his breathing which had accelerated, and the sound of his heart beat. Some how this scene was already familiar to me, being close to a boy without even noticing it… I remember at school when a guy was teaching me how to use this computer program, he had put his arm around me and had leaned really close to me, yet I didn't even notice until my friend told me afterwards.

I drew my hand back and looked up realising how close my face was to Eds. He actually smelled quite nice for a guy; it was fresh like he had come out of a shower or something, and his face was a little flushed. I leaned back, giving him some space, before pushing myself off the bench.

I stood up and yawned, "Thanks. Well, goodnight."

Ed didn't say anything but his face was still pink and he looked a bit confused. I just shrugged and walked out of the room, popping into everybody else's room to wish them a goodnight, before going into the guest room and throwing myself on the bed. I rested both my arms on my head a looked up at the ceiling, recalling what had just happened. I moved the hand that had touched the metal part, directly in front of me and stared at it for a while, feeling my face going red. Why did I do that?

**Haha, did you think they were gonna kiss? Nah, that would be way too early. It was actually pretty hard to write how Ed would react… its going to be a bigger pain in the ass to write in the future.**

**Please review :P **


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